
Book ^QjL___ 



PRESENTED BY 






™*wn: 




<&. 






*s&tg-*r£/4*XSj- 



Pict; 
One Hi 

Morris Birkb eck 

by courtesy of 
H. W. Fay of De Kale 






®t>e iLafeesioe Classics 



Pictures of Illinois 

One Hundred Years 

Ago 

EDITED BY 

MILO MILTON QUAIFE 

Superintendent of 
The State Historical Society of Wisconsin 



With Frontispiece 



(The Lakeside 

I Press Chicago 




R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
CHRISTMAS, MCMXVIII 



X. 



Gift 

i m 



$ubUgtyei$' deface 



AS this, the Sixteenth Volume of The Lake- 
r\ side Classics, goes to press, the world 
is celebrating the armistice that ends the 
fighting of The Great War. 

During the past year the war program 
has greatly disorganized American industry — 
taking many into direct military service, trans- 
ferring many from non-war to war productions, 
and leaving the less essential industries curtailed 
and disorganized. The business of printing 
has suffered perhaps more than its share of 
this disorganization, and though the Lakeside 
Press has been no exception, it takes pride in 
its service flag of 200 stars and mourns and 
honors the three brave boys who have made 
the supreme sacrifice. 

The record made by the graduates and the 
older apprentices of the School for Appren- 
tices is especially noteworthy . Of 68 graduate 
journeymen, 35 are in uniform, as are likewise 
20 of the 100 apprentices who are over eigh- 
teen. That so large a proportion of these boys 
should have answered their country's call is a 
tribute to the esprit de corps and patriotic sen- 
timent of the school. 

All these boys have kept up a close corre- 
spondence with members of the Press, and all 
take it for granted that on demobilization they 



^ubligjjerg' preface 



will return to their old positions. The purpose 
of this school has been to train competent 
workingmen, who, as the years went by, would 
gradually constitute themselves into the organ- 
ization of the skilled employees of the Press. 
Many skeptics first prophesied that the school 
was bound to be a failure, because the appren- 
tices would not stay out the life of their appren- 
ticeship, and when this proved erroneous, the 
same skeptics prophesied that, after the appren- 
tices had graduated into journeymen and were 
no longer bound by their contractual relations, 
they would drift into other employment, and 
thus the years put into their education would 
be lost to the Press. 

This war has brought the loyalty to the Press 
of these graduate journeymen to the supreme 
test, and now that their loyalty has stood firm, all 
doubts concerning the permanency of the school 
have been finally refuted and the school stands 
today as an established example of the practi- 
cability of educating youth into an organization 
of skilled craftsmen. 

The history of early Illinois continues to be 
the subject of this year's volume. The story of 
Illinois one hundred years ago has been brought 
to our minds by the celebration this year of the 
Illinois Centennial. This volume gives three 
pictures of life in the state at that time — two 
of the famous English settlement of Southern 
Illinois, and the third, a trip of a very observ- 
ing traveler up the Illinois and Des Plaines 



3^u&Ii£l)er0 , preface 



rivers and his story of a great Indian council 
held where the sky-scrapers of Chicago now 
stand . These selections have again been chosen 
by Mr. Milo Milton Quaife, whose introduction 
gives them their proper historical setting. 

That this volume may be of interest to the 
reader, and that during the negotiations of the 
world peace, it may carry the Christmas mes- 
sage of peace and good-will to their friends 
and patrons, is the desire of 

THE PUBLISHERS. 

Christmas, 1918. 



Contents 



PAGE 

Historical Introduction xi 

Part I. Observations of an English 
Immigrant in 181 7 — Birkbeck . . i 

From Morris Birkbeck: "Notes on a jour- 
ney from the coast of Virginia to the Terri- 
tory of Illinois." 

Part II. A Tour in Southern Illinois 
in 1822 — Blane 39 

From William Newnham Blane: "An Ex- 
cursion through the United States and Can- 
ada during the years 1822-1823." 

Part III. A Journey up the Illinois 
River in 1821 — Schoolcraft . . 83 

From Henry R. Schoolcraft: "Travels in 
the Central Portion of the Mississippi 
Valley." 

Appendix. The Chicago Treaty of 
1821 161 

Index 169 



^tetortcal ginttotiuctfotT 



Not least significant among the activities of 
the people of Illinois during the state's centen- 
nial year is the attention devoted to her far- 
away beginnings three generations ago. Amid 
the turmoil of the greatest war the world has 
ever witnessed only a people proud of its past 
or careless of its present and future would thus 
find time and energy to devote to a great his- 
torical celebration. Wisely and properly, we 
think, did the people of Illinois take time to 
signalize in fitting fashion the completion of 
one hundred years of statehood . If the present 
war has taught any lesson thus far, surely it 
is that of the superiority of spiritual ideals over 
those of mere material achievements. More 
precious by far to civilization than all the ma- 
terial achievements of Prussian kultur are the 
characteristics of the souls of France and Bel- 
gium as they stand revealed through the four 
and one-half years of national trial which close 
with the year 1918. As compared with these 
countries America is a youthful nation, and 
within the United States Illinois belongs to 
the newer portion of the country. Long since 
recognized in material things as one of the 
greatest among the commonwealths which com- 
pose the nation, it should be the resolve of every 



iljigtorical introduction 

citizen of Illinois that in the development of 
spiritual ideals her record shall be no less 
notable. 

With individuals, all growth and progress 
are dependent upon the cultivation of memory; 
bereft of this, the wisest statesman would in- 
stantly become as a puling babe. With peoples 
the sum total of knowledge of their past cor- 
responds to memory in the case of the individ- 
ual. This body of knowledge in the case of 
any given people constitutes its history. Only 
by its assiduous cultivation can a people de- 
velop a national consciousness and soul. That 
the people of Illinois are not unmindful of this 
fact and do not intend to permit their precious 
historical heritage to perish through neglect, 
is evident from the record of their centennial 
year. By way of presenting some slight con- 
tribution to the state's centennial observances 
it has seemed appropriate this year to reproduce 
in the annual volume of Lakeside Classics some 
first-hand descriptions by contemporary observ- 
ers of the Illinois of one hundred years ago. 

Such records, known to lawyers and courts 
as original evidence and to scholars as source 
material, present a fresher and truer view of 
things than the second hand narration of the 
historian can do. Nevertheless, in the nature 
of the case for their proper appreciation an 
adequate background of historical knowledge 
is requisite, and this knowledge the average 
reader cannot be presumed to possess. To 



IjJigtoricai ^Pntxotmction 

provide briefly such a background, will be the 
task of the remaining portion of this intro- 
duction. 

Very different in composition was the Illinois 
of 1 8 1 8 from that of a century later. The total 
white population, even by the admittedly pad- 
ded census taken to convince Congress that 
the territory had enough people to entitle it to 
admission to statehood, was only forty thou- 
sand, but little more than that of the city of 
Quincy at the present day. This population 
was located in the southern quarter of the 
state, all the settled region lying below a line 
drawn from St. Louis on the west to Terre 
Haute on the east. Even in this southern end 
of the state there was a large area of wilder- 
ness, the great majority of the settlers being 
found in two clusters of settlement, the one 
in the extreme east, the other in the western 
side of the state. There were but two centers 
of population in the entire state which could 
fairly be designated as towns. These were 
Kaskaskia in the west, and Shawneetown on 
the Ohio in southeastern Illinois. The latter 
town was the land office for southeastern Illi- 
nois and a considerable center of trade and 
travel. In 1814 it had enjoyed something of 
a real estate boom, but due to annual inunda- 
tions of the town site by the Ohio River, and 
to the general unhealthfulness of the place the 
boom speedily collapsed and in 18 16 the inhab- 
itants, presenting a woeful picture of their sad 



^i^torical ^ntrotmction 

lot to Congress, petitioned for the omission 
of payment of the installments still due the 
government for their lots. Kaskaskia, the 
capital of the state, was one of the oldest 
civilized settlements in the Mississippi Valley. 
Already a century old, for almost half a cen- 
tury prior to the creation of Illinois Territory 
in 1809 the place had been declining in im- 
portance. The location of the territorial capi- 
tal brought about a temporary revival. In 181 8 
it probably had upwards of a thousand inhabi- 
tants, a goodly proportion of them being of 
French or French and Indian persuasion. Al- 
though some travelers foresaw for the town 
a brilliant future, the loss successively of the 
capital, the county seat, and finally, by a freak 
of the Mississippi, the making of the town site 
into an island, doomed it to destruction, and 
the town has long since existed only in memory. 
North of the imaginary line we have drawn 
from St. Louis to Terre Haute all of Illinois 
in 18 1 8 was still a virgin wilderness. At Chi- 
cago there had been since the building of the 
second Fort Dearborn in the autumn of 18 16 
a few score soldiers, together with an Indian 
agency and perhaps half a dozen civilian fami- 
lies. Such connection as Chicago enjoyed with 
the great outside world lay to the northward, 
however, rather than with the settlements of 
southern Illinois. The Indian agency was under 
the superintendency of Governor Cass at De- 
troit, and such slight trade as passed through 



I^i^torical ^Pntrotmction 

the place, consisting of furs carried out of Illi- 
nois and supplies brought for the Fort Dear- 
born garrison, was conducted by water with 
Mackinac and Detroit. At the site of Peoria 
were the decaying remains of an old French 
settlement, but, this aside, there was scarcely 
a sign of civilization between Chicago and the 
mouth of the Illinois River. Nowhere on the 
globe, however, lay a finer tract of land, or one 
better suited for the development of a civilized 
society. 

Curiously enough the earliest French visitors 
to this region had estimated its worth with 
surer judgment than did their Anglo-Saxon 
successors until well into the period of state- 
hood for Illinois. Marquette, who came in 
1673, was charmed with the valley of the Illi- 
nois. "We have seen nothing like this river," 
he wrote, "as regards its fertility of soil, its 
prairies and woods, its cattle [buffalo], elk, 
deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parro- 
quits, and even beaver." "As to the aspect of 
the country," wrote Joutel, who was in Illinois 
several months during 1687 and 1688, "it 
could not be more beautiful, and I may say 
that the land of the Illinois is perfect, every- 
thing necessary to life and subsistence can be 
obtained, for, in addition to the beauty with 
which it is adorned, it possesses fertility." And 
after a further description he concludes, "So 
that men alone are needed for obtaining great 
riches in this country, and they could maintain 



ii^torical ^ntrotmction 

themselves far more easily there than in many 
other parts, where heavy expenses have been 
incurred for settlements which yield small re- 
turns and are of little importance." 

Equally agreeable is the picture drawn by 
the unknown Frenchman, a lieutenant of Tonty, 
who spent upwards of a score of years in Illi- 
nois beginning with the time of La Salle's oc- 
cupancy, a copy of whose memoir is preserved 
in the Ayer Collection at Chicago. Yet, a full 
century and a half later so shrewd an observer 
as Horace Greeley considered "Deficiency of 
Water" to be "the great, formidable, perma- 
nent drawback on the eligibility of the prairie 
region for settlement," a deficiency which he 
could not see could ever be permanently rem- 
edied. Of similar purport was the conclusion 
of Judge Storrow with respect to southeast 
Wisconsin in 1817. It labored, he thought, 
"under the permanent defects of coldness of 
soil and want of moisture," although he con- 
ceded that "at some remotely future period" 
when a dense population should make possible 
the application of artificial heat, the husbandman 
might extract means of life from it. A few 
years later a scientific investigating expedition 
sent out by the United States government 
(that of Major Long) , visiting Chicago in 1823, 
found the climate inhospitable, the soil sterile, 
and the scenery monotonous and uninviting, and 
Schoolcraft whose narrative we reprint, while 
optimistic about northern Illinois and the future 
xvi 



i|H£torical Stotrotmction 



prospects of Chicago, has only dubious praise 
for the region between Peoria and St. Louis. 

Illinois has long since come to be regarded 
as a northern state, but one hundred years ago 
its population was predominantly southern in 
tone and origin. A recent investigator^) con- 
cludes that two-thirds the population was south- 
ern stock, while of the remaining third one-half 
was of foreign origin and the other half from 
the New England and Middle states. Regard- 
less of place of origin, however, the vast ma- 
jority of the people lived as hunters or farmers. 
The great majority, probably, belonged to the 
hunter class. They were described by Ford- 
ham, a contemporary observer, as "unpolished, 
but hospitable, kind to Strangers, honest and 
trustworthy. They raise a little Indian corn, 
pumpkins, hogs, and sometimes have a cow or 
two, and two or three horses belonging to each 
family: But their rifle is their principal means 
of support. They are the best marksmen in 
the world, and such is their dexterity that they 
will shoot an apple off the head of a companion. 
They were vindictive toward the red man, but 
honest and generous with those whom they 
admitted to their friendship. They could not 
be called first settlers," Fordham continues, 
"for they move every year or two." 

After this group came those whose principal 
livelihood was gained from farming operations, 
but who, with limited means at their disposal, 

] S. J. Buck, Illinois in ^/^(Springfield, 1 917). 



ijH^toricai ^tttrotmction 

still depended in part on hunting. Near the 
land office towns, and scattered here and there 
elsewhere over the territory were to be found 
a sprinkling of professional men — doctors and 
lawyers — and a considerable number of farmers 
of more stability and substance than was pos- 
sessed by the classes already noted. 

Into such a raw frontier society was sud- 
denly projected, in the years 1817 and 1818, 
a remarkable influence. Two Englishmen of 
means and education, Morris Birkbeck and 
George Flower, selected a prairie site in modern 
Edwards County as the spot in all America 
best suited to their purpose of developing an 
economic and social experiment which should 
serve the double purpose of bettering their 
own prospects in life and demonstrating to 
their fellow countrymen a practicable avenue 
of escape from the hard economic conditions 
which they faced at home. Before the close 
of 18 1 8 over 26,000 acres of land had been 
purchased and some 200 English settlers had 
been colonized on it. Thus was projected the 
famous "English Settlement" of Birkbeck and 
Flower. It attained much notoriety in the next 
few years, not the least of it due to the nu- 
merous disputes which the two founders waged, 
now with each other and again with critics of 
their enterprise. Both Birkbeck and Flower 
were cultured men, and through their skillful 
use of the pen they commanded a wide audi- 
ence both in Europe and America. Moreover, 



Jjigtorical ^fntrotiuction 

a number of European travelers who visited 
America during the first few years wrote up 
the English Settlement, and their descriptions, 
whether favorable or condemnatory, contributed 
alike to advertising the enterprise and inci- 
dentally the State of Illinois. 

Thus the resources of this section were 
thoroughly aired throughout the older East as 
well as in Europe. Of more direct importance 
was the fact that the English settlers brought 
into Illinois pure bred stock, adequate capital 
and equipment, and a thorough familiarity with 
the best agricultural practices of England. 
They were aggressively interested, too, in pub- 
lic morals, education, and the orderly progress 
of affairs generally. Such an influence could 
not be other than tonic in its effect upon the 
rude and easy going frontier population of the 
state a century ago. 

To pursue the fortunes of English Settle- 
ment would be interesting, but it is not our 
present task. Rather we are seeking to sketch 
the background requisite for the reader to ap- 
preciate the narrative of Birkbeck which we 
present. A prolific writer, one of his most 
popular books was the Notes on a Journey 
from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of 
Illinois, prepared, as the title indicates, in the 
form of a contemporary journal of travel. The 
manuscript of this work was carried eastward 
by Flower, who returned to England in 1817, 
after the journey of exploration to choose the 
xix 



iiHgtortcai introduction 

site of the colony had been performed, and 
published at Philadelphia the same year. Be- 
fore the close of 1818 no less than four editions 
of the work had been published in London, 
and before the close of 18 19 eleven editions 
had appeared in English, in Philadelphia, Lon- 
don, Dublin, and Cork. Meanwhile the author 
followed the Notes with another work entitled 
Letters from Illinois, which went through no 
less than seven English editions in the year of 
its publication, 1818. 

The Notes describe Birkbeck's journey by 
sea from England to Virginia, and thence over- 
land by way of Richmond, Washington, Pitts- 
burgh, and Cincinnati to his destination. The 
portion of the work we reprint takes up the 
narrative on the eve of entering Illinois, and 
gives one of the clearest accounts on record of 
the social and economic conditions prevalent 
in southern Illinois a century ago. In perusing 
it the reader should bear in mind that he is 
viewing the Illinois of our forefathers through 
the spectacles of an educated English farmer, 
who writes his Notes even while experiencing 
his first impressions of the frontier region to 
which he had come with the desire of carving 
out a home for himself and his children. 

William Newnham Blane, who made An 
Excursion Through the United States and Can- 
ada During the Years 1822-1 82 'j, is described 
on the title page of his book as ' 'an English gen- 
tleman." His introduction to the New World 

XX 



iiHgtorical Stototmction 

was unpropitious enough, for he found New 
York in the grip of an epidemic of yellow fever. 
The city, he tells us, was practically deserted, 
all but seven or eight thousand of its 120,000 
inhabitants having fled its limits to escape the 
ravages of the dread disease. Proceeding west- 
ward the traveler came in due time to Birk- 
beck's English Settlement. Here we take up 
his story, journeying with him across Illinois 
to St. Louis. From this point Blane's original 
intention was to ascend the Mississippi and 
return to New York by way of the Great Lakes. 
Failing to find any companion for the journey, 
however, he abandoned the project and again 
crossed Illinois to Harmony, Indiana, and at 
length by way of the great National Road to 
the Atlantic coast. From Blane we obtain 
a picture of the English Settlement four years 
after its establishment, and an excellent de- 
scription of the sights and scenes experienced 
in his further journey across the state to St. 
Louis. 

Our final narrative recites the observa- 
tions made and experiences undergone in the 
course of a journey from St. Louis to Chicago 
in the summer of 1 82 1. Henry Schoolcraft, 
the author, was a man of note in the Northwest 
a century ago. An intimate friend of Lewis 
Cass, who was for upwards of two decades the 
most important figure on the northwestern 
frontier, Schoolcraft served for many busy 
years as Indian agent at Mackinac, Sault Ste. 



I^igtorical ^ntrotmction 



Marie, and other points. A cultivated, studious 
man, the intimate knowledge of the red man 
and of the geography of the Northwest which 
Schoolcraft was thus enabled to acquire was 
put to repeated service in writing the series of 
books which streamed from his busy pen. A 
large portion of southern Michigan, extending 
from Grand River to the Indiana line was still 
held by the Pottawatomi, and a council was 
arranged at Chicago in the summer of 1 821 
with a view to negotiating the cession of this 
magnificent area to the United States. To 
Chicago the American negotiators, Governor 
Cass and Solomon Sibley, proceeded in the 
summer of 1 821, accompanied by Schoolcraft 
in the capacity of secretary and scientific ob- 
server. The route and mode of conveyance of 
the party from Detroit to Chicago seem strange 
enough to the twentieth century reader. Or- 
dinarily one either followed the overland trail 
through the wilderness, some three hundred 
miles in length, or journeyed by canoe or sail- 
boat around the lakes, a journey twice as long 
as that by the overland trail. On the present 
occasion Cass and Sibley ignored both of these 
routes. Instead they proceeded in a large canoe 
across Lake Erie and thence up the Maumee 
and down the Wabash to the Ohio, across 
southern Illinois to St. Louis, and up the Illi- 
nois by boat or on horseback to Chicago. The 
journey supplied Schoolcraft with material for 
a book of nearly 500 pages, published at New 



i^igtorical ^ntrotmctitm 

York in 1825, under the title of Travels in the 
Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley: 
Comprising Observations on its Mineral Ge- 
ography, Internal Resources, and Aboriginal 
Population. From it we have selected the 
chapters describing the journey from the mouth 
of the Illinois to Chicago, together with the 
succeeding account of the negotiations attend- 
ing the Chicago Treaty of 1821. The narra- 
tive affords a good picture of the impression 
produced by the valley of the Illinois in the 
closing years of its wilderness existence upon 
a traveler of unusual powers of observation 
and expression. The account of the treaty 
negotiations is typical of the proceedings many 
times repeated at such gatherings of the red 
race and the white during the long course 
of American expansion westward over the 
continent. 

In conclusion it may be noted for the read- 
er's information that with the exception of the 
omission of footnotes the narratives are re- 
printed just as they appear in the books of one 
hundred years ago. This explanation will 
serve to account for the variations in the typog- 
raphy and for those instances of punctuation 
and spelling which are not in harmony with 
modern usage. 

MILO M. QUAIFE. 

Madison, Wisconsin. 



Part I 

Observations of an English 
Immigrant in 1817 



flDbgetijatfong of an Cngli^lj 
Slmmfgrant in 1817 

[From Morris Birkbeck: "Notes on a Journey from 
the coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois"] 



JULY 26th. Left Harmony after breakfast, 
and crossing the Wabash at the ferry, 
three miles below, we proceeded to the 
Big-Prairie, where, to our astonishment, we 
beheld a fertile plain of grass and arable, and 
some thousand acres covered with corn, more 
luxuriant than any we had before seen. The 
scene reminded us of some open, well cultivat- 
ed vale in Europe, surrounded by wooded up- 
lands; and forgetting that we were, in fact, on 
the very frontiers, beyond which, few settlers 
had penetrated, we were transported in idea to 
the fully peopled regions we had left so far 
behind us. 

On our arrival at Mr. Williams' habitation, 
the illusion vanished. Though the owner of an 
estate in this prairie, on which at this time are 
nearly three hundred acres of beautiful corn in 
one field, he lives in a way, apparently, as re- 
mote from comfort, as the settler of one year, 
who thinks only of the means of supporting 
existence. 

We had also an opportunity of seeing the 

3 



$icture£ of ^Hmoi^ 



youth of the neighbourhood, as the muster of 
the militia took place this day at his house. 
The company amounts to about thirty, of whom 
about twenty attended with their rifles: In per- 
forming the exercise, which was confined to 
the handling their arms, they were little adroit; 
but in the use of them against an invading foe, 
woe to their antagonists! 

The soil of the Big-Prairie, which is of no 
great extent, notwithstanding its name, is a 
rich cool sand; that is to say, one of the most 
desirable description. It extends about five 
miles by four, bounded by an irregular outline 
of lofty timber, like a lake of verdure, most 
cheering to our eyes, just emerging from the 
dark woods of Indiana. This prairie is some- 
what marshy, and there is much swampy ground 
between it and the Wabash, which is distant 
seven miles. The settlers have, in conse- 
quence, suffered from ague and other bilious 
complaints, but they are now much more 
healthy than they were on the first settlement. 
Cultivation seems to alter the character of the 
soil; where the plow goes it is no longer a 
marsh, but dry sandy arable. About thirty 
miles to the north of this, which was among 
the earliest prairie settlements of the district 
(having been done four or five years) there are 
prairies of higher aspect, and uneven surface 
to which our attention is directed. We found a 
few settlers round one of these, who are now 
watching their first crop. 

4 



;jWorrig 25xrftBecft 



These people are healthy, and the females 
and children better complexioned than their 
neighbours of the timbered country. It is evi- 
dent that they breathe better air. But they 
are in a low state of civilization, about half- 
Indian in their mode of life. They also seem 
to have less cordiality towards a "land hunter" 
as they, with some expression of contempt, call 
the stranger who explores their country in quest 
of a home. 

Their habits of life do not accord with those 
of a thickly settled neighbourhood. They are 
hunters by profession, and they would have the 
whole range of the forest for themselves and 
their cattle. — Thus strangers appear among 
them as invaders of their privileges; as they 
have intruded on the better founded exclusive 
privileges of their Indian predecessors. 

But there are agreeable exceptions to the 
coarse part of this general character. I have 
met with pleasant intelligent people who were 
a perfect contrast to their semi-Indian neigh- 
bours; cleanly, industrious, and orderly: whilst 
ignorance, indolence, and disorder, with a total 
disregard of cleanliness in their houses and per- 
sons are too characteristic of the hunter tribe. 

August ist. Dagley's, twenty miles north of 
Shawnee Town. After viewing several beauti- 
ful prairies, so beautiful with their surrounding 
woods as to seem like the creation of fancy, 
gardens of delight in a dreary wilderness; and 
after losing our horses and spending two days 

5 



fMctureg of STOnoig 



in recovering them, we took a hunter as our 
guide, and proceeded across the Little Wabash, 
to explore the country between that river, and 
the Skillet-fork. 

Since we left the Fox settlement, about fif- 
teen miles north of the Big-Prairie, cultivation 
has been very scanty, many miles intervening 
between the little "clearings." This may 
therefore be truly called a new country. 

These lonely settlers are poorly off: — their 
bread corn must be ground thirty miles off, re- 
quiring three days to carry to the mill, and 
bring back, the small horse-load of three bush- 
els. Articles of family manufacture are very 
scanty, and what they purchase is of the mean- 
est quality and excessively dear: yet they are 
friendly and willing to share their simple fare 
with you. It is surprising how comfortable 
they seem, wanting everything. To struggle 
with privations has now become the habit of 
their lives, most of them having made several 
successive plunges into the wilderness: and 
they begin already to talk of selling their "im- 
provements," and getting still farther "back," 
on finding that emigrants of another descrip- 
tion are thickening about them. 

Our journey across the Little Wabash was a 
complete departure from all mark of civiliza- 
tion. We saw no bears, as they are now buried 
in the thickets, and seldom appear by day; but, 
at every few yards, we saw recent marks of 
their doings, ' 'wallowing* ' in the long grass, 
6 



;0tom£ S&irftfiecft 



or turning over the decayed logs in quest of 
beetles or worms, in which work the strength of 
this animal is equal to that of four men. Wan- 
dering without track, where even the sagacity 
of our hunter-guide had nearly failed us, we at 
length arrived at the cabin of another hunter, 
where we lodged. 

This man and his family are remarkable 
instances of the effect on the complexion, pro- 
duced by the perpetual incarceration of a thor- 
ough woodland life. Incarceration may seem 
to be a term less applicable to the condition of 
a roving backwoodsman than to any other, 
and especially unsuitable to the habits of this 
individual and his family; for the cabin in 
which he entertained us, is the third dwelling 
he has built in the last twelve months; and a 
very slender motive would place him in a fourth 
before the ensuing winter. In his general habits, 
the hunter ranges as freely as the beasts he 
pursues: labouring under no restraint, his act- 
ivity is only bounded by his own physical 
powers; still he is incarcerated — "shut from 
the common air." Buried in the depth of a 
boundless forest, the breeze of health never 
reaches these poor wanderers; the bright pros- 
pect of distant hills fading away into the sem- 
blance of clouds, never cheered their sight. 
They are tall and pale, like vegetables that 
grow in a vault, pining for light. 

The man, his pregnant wife, his eldest son, 
a tall half-naked youth, just initiated in the 

7 



$icture£ of ^Hinoig 



hunters' arts, his three daughters, growing up 
into great rude girls, and a squalling tribe of 
dirty brats of both sexes, are of one pale yellow, 
without the slightest tint of healthful bloom. 

In passing through a vast expanse of the 
backwoods, I have been so much struck with 
this effect, that I fancy I could determine the 
color of the inhabitants, if I was apprized of 
the depth of their immersion; and, vice versa, 
I could judge of the extent of the "clearing" 
if I saw the people. The blood, I fancy, is not 
supplied with its proper dose of oxygen from 
their gloomy atmosphere, crowded with vege- 
tables growing almost in the dark, or decom- 
posing; and, in either case, abstracting from 
the air this vital principle. 

Our stock of provisions being nearly exhaust- 
ed, we were anxious to provide ourselves with 
a supper by means of our guns; but we could 
meet with neither deer nor turkey; however, 
in our utmost need, we shot three racoons, an 
old one to be roasted for our dogs, and the two 
young ones to be stewed up daintily for our- 
selves. We soon lighted a fire, and cooked the 
old racoon for the dogs; but, famished as they 
were, they would not touch it, and their squeam- 
ishness so far abated our relish for the prom- 
ised stew, that we did not press our complaining 
landlady to prepare it: and thus our supper 
consisted of the residue of our "corn" bread, 
and no racoon. However, we laid our bear 
skins on the filthy earth, (floor there was none,) 
8 



Jftorrig 25irft6ecfe 



which they assured us was "too damp for 
fleas," and, wrapped in our blankets, slept 
soundly enough; though the collops of venison, 
hanging in comely rows in the smoky fireplace, 
and even the shoulders, put by for the dogs, and 
which were suspended over our heads, would 
have been an acceptable prelude to our night's 
rest, had we been invited to partake of them: 
but our hunter and our host were too deeply 
engaged in conversation to think of supper. 
In the morning the latter kindly invited us to 
cook some of the collops, which we did by 
toasting them on a stick; and he also divided 
some shoulders among the dogs: — so we all 
fared sumptuously. 

The cabin, which may serve as a specimen 
of these rudiments of nouses, was formed of 
round logs, with apertures of three or four 
inches between. No chimney, but large inter- 
vals between the "clapboards/' for the escape 
of the smoke. The roof was, however, a more 
effectual covering than we have generally 
experienced, as it protected us very tolerably 
from a drenching night. Two bedsteads of 
unhewn logs, and cleft boards laid across: — 
two chairs, one of them without a bottom, and 
a low stool, were all the furniture required by 
this numerous family. A string of buffalo hide 
stretched across the hovel, was a wardrobe for 
their rags; and their utensils, consisting of a 
large iron pot, some baskets, the effective rifle 
and two that were superannuated, stood about in 
9 



$ictureg of ^Ilinoig 



corners, and the riddle, which was only silent 
when we were asleep, hung by them. 

Our racoons, though lost to us and our hun- 
gry dogs, furnished a new set of strings for 
this favourite instrument. Early in the morn- 
ing the youth had made good progress in their 
preparation, as they were cleaned and stretched 
on a tree to dry. 

Many were the tales of dangerous adven- 
tures, in their hunting expeditions, which kept 
us from our pallets till a late hour; and the 
gloomy morning allowed our hunters to resume 
their discourse, which no doubt would have 
been protracted to the evening, had not our 
impatience to depart caused us to interrupt it, 
which we effected, with some difficulty by 
eleven in the forenoon. 

These hunters are as persevering as savages, 
and as indolent. They cultivate indolence as a 
privilege; "You English are very industrious, 
but we have freedom." And thus they exist 
in yawning indifference, surrounded with nui- 
sances and petty wants, the first to be removed, 
and the latter supplied by a tenth of the time 
loitered away in their innumerable idle days. 

Indolence, under various modifications, 
seems to be the easily besetting sin of the 
Americans, where I have travelled. The Indian 
probably stands highest on the scale, as an ex- 
ample; the backwoodsman the next; the new 
settler, who declines hunting takes a lower 
degree, and so on. I have seen interesting 
10 



4*tom£ 25itft6ecfe 



exceptions even among the hunting tribe; but 
the malady is a prevailing one in all classes: 
— I note it again and again, not in the spirit of 
satire, but as a hint for reformation: 
"To know ourselves diseased is half a cure." 
The Little Wabash, which we crossed in 
search of some prairies, which had been de- 
scribed to us in glowing colors, is a sluggish 
and scanty stream at this season, but for three 
months of the latter part of winter and spring, 
it covers a great space by the overflow of waters 
collected in its long course. The Skillet-fork 
is also a river of similar character; and the 
country lying between them must labour under 
the inconvenience of absolute seclusion for 
many months every year, until bridges and 
ferries are established. This would be a bar 
to our settling within the "Fork," as it is 
called. We therefore separated this morning, 
without losing the time that it would require to 
explore this part thoroughly. I proceed to 
Shawnee Town land office, to make some en- 
tries which we had determined on, between the 
Little and the Big Wabash. Mr Flower spends 
a day or two in looking about, and returns to 
our families at Princeton. Having made my 
way through this wildest of wildernesses to the 
Skillet-fork, I crossed it at a shoal, which 
affords a notable instance out of a thousand, of 
the utter worthlessness of reports about remote 
objects in this country, even from soi-disant 
eye-witnesses. 

ii 



$icture£ of ^lixnoig 



A grave old hunter, who had the air of much 
sagacity, declared to me, that he visited this 
shoal, that it is a bed of limestone, a substance 
greatly wanting in this country. The son con- 
firmed the father's account, adding that he had 
seen the stone burnt into lime. It is micaceous 
sandstone slate, without the least affinity to 
lime-stone ! 

It is a dreadful country on each side of the 
Skillet-fork; flat and swampy; so that the water 
in many places, even at this season, renders 
travelling disagreeable. Yet here and there, 
at ten miles distance perhaps, the very solitude 
tempts some one of the family of Esau to pitch 
his tent for a season. 

At one of these lone dwellings we found a 
neat, respectable-looking female, spinning un- 
der the little piazza at one side of the cabin, 
which shaded her from the sun. Her husband 
was absent on business, which would detain 
him some weeks. She had no family, and no 
companion but her husband's faithful dog, 
which usually attended him in his bear hunting 
in the winter. She was quite overcome with 
"/one" she said, and hoped we would tie our 
horses in the wood, and sit awhile with her, 
during the heat of the day. We did so, and 
she rewarded us with a basin of coffee. Her 
husband was kind and good to her, and never 
left her without necessity, but a true lover of 
bear hunting; which he pursued alone, taking 
only his dog with him, though it is common for 



0Lotn$ 25irft6ecft 



hunters to go in parties to attack this danger- 
ous animal. He had killed a great number last 
winter, five, I think in one week. The cabin 
of this hunter was neatly arranged, and the 
garden well stocked. 

August 2nd. We lodged last night at 
another cabin, where similar neatness prevailed 
within and without. The woman neat, and the 
children clean in skin, and whole in their 
clothes. The man possessed of good sense and 
sound notions, ingenious and industrious, a 
contrast to backwoodsmen in general. He 
lives on the edge of the seven miles' prairie, 
a spot charming to the eye, but deficient in 
surface-water, and they say the well-water is 
not good: I suppose they have not dug deeper 
than twenty-five feet, which is no criterion of 
the purity of springs in a soil absorbent from 
the surface to that depth. 

Shawnee Town. This place I account as a 
phenomenon evincing the pertinacious adhesion 
of the human animal to the spot where it has 
once fixed itself. As the lava of Mount Etna 
cannot dislodge this strange being from the 
cities which have been repeatedly ravaged by 
its eruptions, so the Ohio with its annual over- 
flowings is unable to wash away the inhabitants 
of Shawnee Town. — Once a year, for a series 
of successive springs, it has carried away the 
fences from their cleared lands, till at length 
they have surrendered, and ceased to cultivate 
them. Once a year, the inhabitants either make 
13 



$icture0 of 3TOno# 



their escape to higher lands, or take refuge in 
their upper stories, until the waters subside, 
when they recover their position on this desolate 
sand-bank. 

Here is the land office for the south-east dis- 
trict of Illinois, where I have just constituted 
myself a land-owner by paying seven hundred 
and twenty dollars, as one-fourth of the pur- 
chase money of fourteen hundred and forty 
acres: this, with a similar purchase made by 
Mr. Flower, is part of a beautiful and rich 
prairie, about six miles distant from the Big, and 
the same from the Little Wabash. 

The land is rich natural meadow bounded by 
timbered lands, within reach of two navigable 
rivers, and may be rendered immediately pro- 
ductive at a small expence. The successful cul- 
tivation of several prairies has awakened the 
attention of the public, and the value of this 
description of land is now known; so that the 
smaller portions, which are surrounded by tim- 
ber, will probably be settled so rapidly as to 
absorb, in a few months, all that is to be 
obtained at the government rate, of two dollars 
per acre. 

Sand predominates in the soil of the south- 
eastern quarter of the Illinois territory: — the 
basis of the country is sand-stone, lying, I 
believe, on clay-slate. The bed of the Ohio, 
at Shawnee Town is sand-stone: forty miles 
north-east, near Harmony, is a quarry of the 
same stone, on the banks of the Big Wabash. 
14 



^lorri^ 2Birft6ecft 



The shoals of the little Wabash and the Skil- 
let-fork, twenty, forty, and sixty miles up, are 
of the same formation. No lime-stone has yet 
been discovered in the district. I have heard 
of coal in several places, but have not seen a 
specimen of it. Little, however, is yet known 
with precision of the surface of many parts of 
the country; and the wells though numerous, 
rarely reach the depth of thirty feet, below 
which, I presume, the earth has in no instance 
been explored. 

The geographical position of this portion of 
territory promises favourably for its future 
importance. The Big Wabash, a noble stream, 
forming its eastern boundary, runs a course of 
about four hundred miles through one of the 
most fertile portions of this most fertile region. 
It has a communication well known to the 
Indian traders, with Lake Huron and all the 
navigation of the north, by means of a portage 
of eight miles to the Miami of the lakes. This 
portage will, probably, be made navigable in a 
few years. Population is already very consid- 
erable along this river, and upon White River, 
another beautiful and navigable stream, which 
falls into the Wabash from the east. The 
Little Wabash, though a sluggish stream, is, 
or may become, a navigable communication 
extending far north, I am informed four hundred 
miles. 

The prairies have been represented as 
marshes, and many of them are so. This is 
15 



$icture£ of 3TOinoi£ 



not, however, the case with all. Our prairie 
rises at its northern extremity to a commanding 
height, being one of the most elevated portions 
of the country surmounting, and overlooking 
the woodlands to the south and west, to a great 
distance. There are also many others to the 
northward on lands of the same eligible charac- 
ter, high and fertile, and surrounded by tim- 
bered lands. These are unsurveyed, and of 
course are not yet offered to the public. 

Nothing but fencing and providing water 
for stock is wanted to reduce a prairie into the 
condition of useful grass land; and from that 
state, we all know, the transition to arable is 
through a simple process, easy to perform and 
profitable as it goes on. Thus no addition, 
except the above on the score of improvement, 
is to be made to the first cost, as regards the 
land. Buildings, proportioned to the owner's 
inclination or purse, are of course requisite on 
every estate. 

The dividing a section (six hundred and 
forty acres) into inclosures of twenty-five acres 
each, with proper avenues of communication, 
each inclosure being supplied with water, in the 
most convenient manner, and live hedges plant- 
ed, or sown, will cost less than two dollars per 
acre. This added to the purchase money, when 
the whole is paid, will amount to eighteen shil- 
lings sterling, per acre, or five hundred and 
seventy-six pounds for six hundred and forty 
acres. 

16 



jftorri£ 2Birft6ccfe 



Calculations on the capital to be employed, 
or expended on buildings, and stock alive and 
dead, would be futile, as this would be in pro- 
portion to the means. The larger the amount, 
within the limits of utility, the greater the prof- 
it : but, as the necessary outgoings are trifling, 
a small sum will do. Two thousand pounds 
sterling for these purposes would place the 
owner in a state of comfort and even affluence. 

I conclude from these data, that an English 
farmer possessing three thousand pounds, 
besides the charges of removal may establish 
himself well as a proprietor and occupier of 
such an estate. The folly or the wisdom of the 
undertaking I leave among the propositions 
which are too plain to admit of illustration. 

In their irregular outline of woodland and 
their undulating surface, these tracts of natural 
meadow exhibit every beauty, fresh from the 
hand of nature, which art often labours in vain 
to produce; but there are no organs of percep- 
tion, no faculties as yet prepared in this country, 
for the enjoyment of these exquisite combina- 
tions. 

The grand in scenery I have been shocked 
to hear, by American lips, called disgusting, 
because the surface would be too rude for the 
plough; and the epithet of elegant is used on 
every occasion of commendation but that to 
which it is appropriate in the English language. 

An elegant improvement, is a cabin of rude 
logs, and a few acres with the trees cut down 

17 



$ictureg of ^Hinoig 



to the height of three feet, and surrounded by 
a worm-fence, or zig-zag railing. You hear of 
an elegant mill, an elegant orchard, an elegant 
tan yard, etc., and familiarly of elegant roads, — 
meaning such as you may pass without extreme 
peril. The word implies eligibility or useful- 
ness in America, but has nothing to do with 
taste; which is a term as strange to the Ameri- 
can language, where I have heard it spoken, as 
comfort is said to be to the French, and for a 
similar reason: — the idea has not yet reached 
them. Nature has not yet displayed to them 
those charms of distant and various prospect, 
which will delight the future inhabitants of this 
noble country. 

Scientific pursuits are also, generally speak- 
ing unknown where I have travelled. Reading 
is very much confined to politics, history and 
poetry. Science is not, as in England, culti- 
vated for its own sake. This is to be lamented 
the more, on account of the many heavy hours 
of indolence under which most people are 
doomed to toil, through every day of their exist- 
ence. What yawning and stretching, and pain- 
ful restlessness they would be spared, if their 
time were occupied in the acquisition of useful 
knowledge ! 

There is a sort of covetousness which would 
be the greatest of blessings, to those Ameri- 
cans whose circumstances excuse them from 
constant occupations for a subsistence, — that 
is, to the great majority of the people, — the 
18 



jftorri£ 25irft6ecfe 



covetousness of time, from a knowledge of its 
value. 

The life and habits of the great Franklin, 
whose name, I am sorry to say, is not often 
heard here, would be a most profitable study. 
He possessed the true philosopher's stone; for 
whatever he touched became gold under his 
hand, through the magical power of a scientif- 
ic mind. This lamentable deficiency in science 
and taste, two such abundant sources of enjoy- 
ment, must not be attributed to a want of en- 
ergy in the American character. Witness the 
spirit and good sense with which men of all 
ranks are seen to engage in discussions on 
politics, history, or religion, subjects which have 
attracted, more or less, the attention of every 
one. Nature has done much for them, and they 
leave much to Nature; but they have made 
themselves free; — this may account for their 
indifference to science, and their zeal in 
politics. 

August 3rd, Harmony. — We left Shawnee 
Town this morning under more agreeable im- 
pressions regarding its inhabitants than we had 
entertained before we entered it. We found 
something, certainly of river barbarism, the 
genuine Ohio character; but we met with a 
greater number than we expected of agree- 
able individuals: these, and the kind and hos- 
pitable treatment we experienced at our tavern, 
formed a good contrast to the rude society and 
wretched fare we had left behind us at the Skil- 
19 



$icture£ of ^Hinoi^ 



let-fork. At this, our third visit, Harmony be- 
comes more enigmatical. This day, being 
Sunday, afforded us an opportunity of seeing 
grouped and in their best attire, a large part of 
the members of this wonderful community 1 . It 
was evening when we arrived, and we saw no 
human creature about the streets: — we had 
even to call the landlord of the inn out of church 
to take charge of our horses. The cows were 
waiting around the little dwellings, to supply 
the inhabitants with their evening's meal. Soon 
the entire body of people, which is about seven 
hundred, poured out of the church, and exhibit- 
ed so much health, and peace, and neatness in 
their persons, that we could not but exclaim, 
surely the institutions which produce so much 
happiness must have more of good than of evil 
in them; and here I rest, not lowered in my 
abhorrence of the hypocrisy, if it be such, which 
governs the ignorant by nursing them in super- 

1 Harmony was a communistic society the founder 
and leader of which was Frederick Rappe. Early in 
the century he led several hundred Germans to Amer- 
ica and established a settlement in Pennsylvania. 
Rappe was a shrewd manager and his followers were 
industrious and efficient workers. Accordingly the 
community prospered greatly. In 1814 Rappe re- 
moved with his followers to the Indiana wilderness, 
founding there the town of New Harmony. The 
place was frequently visited and described by travel- 
ers in the West. Its prosperity is sufficiently attested 
by Birkbeck. For longer contemporary accounts of 
the colony see Harlow Lindley (ed.), Indiana as 
Seen by Early Travelers (Indianapolis, 1916). 
20 



;jftorri£ 25itft6etft 



stition; but inclined in charity to believe that 
the leaders are sincere. Certain it is, that living 
in such plenty, and a total abstraction from 
care about the future provision for a family, it 
must be some overbearing thraldom that pre- 
vents increase of their numbers by the natural 
laws of population. 

I had rather attribute this phenomenon to 
bigotry pervading the mass, than charge a few 
with the base policy of chaining a multitude, 
by means of superstition. It is, however, diffi- 
cult to separate the idea of policy from a con- 
trivance which is so highly political. The 
number of Mr. Rapp's associates would increase 
so rapidly, without some artificial restraint, as 
soon to become unmanageable. 

This colony is useful to the neighbourhood, 
a term which includes a large space here: it 
furnishes from its store many articles of great 
value, not so well supplied elsewhere; and it 
is a market for all spare produce. There are 
also valuable culinary plants and fruit trees, 
for which the neighbourhood is indebted to 
the Harmonites; and they set a good example 
of neatness and industry: but they are despised 
as ignorant; and men are not apt to imitate 
what they scorn. Ignorant as the mass of 
Harmonites may be, when we contrast their 
neatness and order, with the slovenly habits 
of their neighbours, we see the good arising 
from mere association, which advances these 
poor people a century, probably much more, 
21 



$icture£ of 3TOnoi£ 



on the social scale, beyond the solitary beings 
who build their huts in the wilderness. For 
my reflections on the principles which may be 
supposed to actuate the rulers of this highly 
prosperous community, having no personal 
knowledge of the parties who govern, nor in- 
timacy with any of the governed, I have no 
data, except the simple and, possibly, super- 
ficial observations of a traveller. Should I in 
this character have under-rated or mistaken 
them, I shall, when their neighbour, gladly 
repair my error. 

From our entrance into the state of Ohio, 
at Wheeling, to the southern boundary of the 
Illinois, there is, properly speaking, no capital 
employed in agriculture, as far as our obser- 
vations extended. 

The little that exists, over and above the 
value of the soil, is to be seen in towns, in the 
stores, and in mills. 

The whole stock of the first settlers generally 
consisted in their two hands: and the property 
they now possess — the fruit of the labour of 
these hands — can hardly be considered as 
capital employed in agriculture, as the sum of 
the best improvements yet effected, only con- 
sists in a few more of the necessaries of life; 
and when the little money that is obtained for 
produce is expended in further improvements, 
the cultivator merely suspends his right to 
partake of its comforts. He has no capital, 
properly speaking, employed in agriculture, 

22 



;J*torrig 25itft6ecft 



whilst he remains unfurnished with the means 
of comfortable living. 

As exceptions to the universal bareness 
and poverty of the country in regard of capital, 
there are a few instances in which its associa- 
tion with the physical power of numbers, has 
produced effects so marvellous, that it seems 
to be equally marvellous that such striking 
advantages should not have produced more 
undertakings of a similar nature. 

The instances I allude to, are the two 
settlements of the Shakers, one near Lebanon, 
in the state of Ohio, and the other on the 
Wabash, fifteen miles north of Vincennes, in 
the state of Indiana: — also the original estab- 
lishment of Mr. Rapp and his followers in 
Pennsylvania, and their present wonderful 
colony of Harmony, on the Wabash, thirty 
miles south of this place. 

In the institution of these societies, the 
Shakers and the Harmonites, — religion, or, if 
you will, fanaticism, seems to be an agent so 
powerful, and in fact is so powerful in its opera- 
tion on the conduct of their members, that we 
are apt to attribute all the wonders that arise 
within the influence of this principle to its 
agency alone: for what may not be effected, 
by a sentiment which can bear down and abro- 
gate entirely, in the instance of the Shakers, 
and nearly so in that of the Harmonites, the 
first great and fundamental law of human, or 
rather of all, nature? I allude to the tenet 
23 



pictures* of ^Hinoig 



which is avowed in the former, and more 
obscurely inculcated in the latter, that the gos- 
pel of Christ is offered to them under the 
injunction of abstinence from sexual inter- 
course. 

I have had repeated opportunities of per- 
sonal observation, on the effects of the united 
efforts of the Harmonites. The result of a 
similar union of powers among the Shakers, 
has been described to me by a faithful wit- 
ness; and I am quite convinced that the asso- 
ciation of numbers, in the application of a 
good capital, is sufficient to account for all 
that has been done: and that the unnatural 
restraint, which forms so prominent and re- 
volting a feature of these institutions, is pros- 
pective, rather than immediate in its object. 

It has, however, as I before remarked, the 
mischievous tendency to render their example, 
so excellent in other prospects, altogether un- 
availing. Strangers visit their establishments, 
and retire from them full of admiration; but, 
a slavish acquiescence under a disgusting super- 
stition, is so remarkable an ingredient in their 
character, that it checks all desire of imitation. 

I wish to see capital and population con- 
centrated, with no bond of cohesion, but com- 
mon interest arising out of vicinity; the true 
elements, as I conceive, of a prosperous com- 
munity. 

The effects of this simple association would 
not be so immediately striking as those above 
24 



ffiiottig y&itftbttk 



mentioned, because the entire physical strength 
of the society could not be directed to one 
point, but would be apparent after a little 
time. Such a society needs only room to 
prosper. No emancipation or breaking up 
would be feared or thought of. 

There is a plan before us, not yet sufficiently 
matured for publication, which I hope may, at 
no distant time, afford to some of our country- 
men the means of proving, that capital, skill, 
and industry, are capable of changing "a wil- 
derness into a fruitful field," without the 
stimulus of fanaticism, or the restraints of 
superstition. The leading features of this 
scheme are, that men of capital who shall em- 
bark in it may, by affording to the poor the 
means of escaping from their sufferings, se- 
cure to themselves those enjoyments and 
habits of life to which their station in society 
has accustomed them; and obviating in respect 
to both classes the chief inconveniences of 
emigration. 

The great want of capital in this country is 
evinced by this circumstance: the growers of 
"corn" (Indian corn) and other grain, sell at 
this season regularly, under the knowledge 
that it will as regularly advance to double the 
price before the next harvest. We now have 
an offer of two hundred barrels of "corn," 
five bushels to the barrel, at a dollar per bar- 
rel, when the seller is quite aware that it will 
be worth two dollars per barrel at midsummer. 
25 



$ictureg of ^Hinoi^ 



Thus store-keepers, or other capitalists, receive 
as much for the crop, clear of expences, as 
the grower himself, who clears the land, 
ploughs, sows, and reaps it. We may judge 
from this consideration how much the farmer 
is kept back for want of spare capital; and 
what will be the advantages of the settler who 
commands it. The same remark applies to 
bacon, and every article of produce. 

We must not suppose, that the poor farmer 
who is obliged to sell under such a disadvan- 
tage, is absolutely poor. He is, on the con- 
trary, a thriving man. Probably, the person 
who now spares us from his heap two hundred 
barrels of corn, possessed three years ago, 
nothing but his wife and family, his hands, 
and his title to a farm where an axe had never 
been lifted. He now, in addition, has a cabin, 
a barn, a stable, horses, cows, and hogs; im- 
plements, furniture, grain, and other provisions ; 
thirty or forty acres of cleared land, and more 
in preparation, and well fenced; and his 
quarter section in its present state, worth four 
times its cost. He is growing rich, but he 
would proceed at a double speed, if he had the 
value of one year's crop beforehand: such is 
the general condition of the new settlers. 

A good cow and calf, is worth from twelve to 
twenty dollars; a two year old heifer, six dollars; 
sheep are scarce; ewes are worth about three 
dollars a head; a sow three dollars; a stout 
horse for drawing, sixty dollars or upwards. 
26 



Piottig 25irft6ecft 



Wheat sells at 3^. 4^/. sterling, per bushel, 
Winchester measure. 
Oats, is. 4d. 
Indian Corn, lid. 
Hay, about 35^. per ton. 
Flour, per barrel, 36^; 196 lb. net. 
Fowls, 4}4d. each. 

Eggs, y 2 d. 

Butter, 6d. per pound. 

Cheese, rarely seen, i^y^d. per pound. 

Meat, 2d. per pound. 

A buck, 4s. 6d. without the skin. 

Salt, 3J-. 4d. per bushel. 

Milk, given away. 

Tobacco, 3d. per pound. 

Our design was to commence housekeep- 
ing, but, being near the tavern, we continue 
to board there. This is more convenient to 
us, as there is but a poor market in this 
little town, and the tavern charges are rea- 
sonable. Our board is two dollars per week, 
each person, for which we receive twenty- 
one meals. Excellent coffee and tea, with 
broiled chickens, bacon, etc. for breakfast 
and supper; and variety of good but simple 
fare at dinner; about five pence sterling a 
meal. No liquor, but water is thought of at 
meals in this country, besides coffee, tea, or 
milk. 

Travelling expences are very regular and 
moderate, amounting to a dollar per day, for 
man and horse, — viz. — 
27 



$icture£ of STOnoig 



Breakfast and feed for horse. . . .$7}4 Cents 

Feed for horse at noon I2>^ 

Supper, and lodging, 

man and horse 50 

100 that is I dollar. 

The power of capital in this newly settled 
or settling region, is not thoroughly understood 
in the eastern states, or emigration would not 
be confined to the indigent or laborious classes. 
These seem to be all in motion; for the tide 
sets far more strongly from these states 
towards the west, than from all Europe to- 
gether. Trade follows of course; and it is 
not surprising that old America no longer 
affords a sure asylum for the distressed of 
other countries. 

I am fully convinced, that those who are not 
screwed up to the full pitch of enterprise had 
better remain in old England, than attempt 
agriculture or business of any kind (manual 
operations excepted) in the Atlantic states. 
Emigrants from Europe are too apt to linger 
in the eastern cities, wasting their time, their 
money, and their resolution. They should 
push out westward without delay, where they 
can live cheaply until they fix themselves. 
Two dollars, saved in Pennsylvania, will pur- 
chase an acre of good land in the Illinois. 

The land carriage from Philadelphia, to 

Pittsburgh, is from seven to ten dollars per 

cwt. (100 lb.) Clothing, razors, pocket-knives, 

pencils, mathematical instruments, and light 

28 



;fttom£ 25irfe6ecfe 



articles in general, of constant usefulness, 
ought to be carried even at this expence, and 
books, which are scarce, and much wanted in 
the west. Good gun-locks are rare and diffi- 
cult to procure. No heavy implements will 
pay carriage. 

A pocket compass is indispensable for every 
stranger who ventures alone into the woods of 
America, and he should always carry the 
means of lighting a fire: for the traveller, 
when he starts in the morning on a wilderness 
journey, little knows where next he may lay 
his head. Tow, rubbed with gunpowder is good 
tinder: — a few biscuits, a phial of spirits, a 
tomahawk, and a good blanket, are necessary 
articles. Overtaken by night, or bewildered, 
if thus provided, you may be really comfort- 
able by your blazing fire; when without 
them, you would feel dismal and disconsolate. 
A dog is a pleasant and useful fellow-traveller 
in the backwoods. You should make your 
fire with a fallen tree for a back-log, and lie to lee- 
ward, with your feet towards it. The smoke 
flying over, will preserve you from the damp 
air, and mosquitoes. Tie your horse with a 
long rein, to the end of a bough, or the top of 
a young Hickory tree, which will allow him to 
graze or browse; and change his position if you 
awake in the night. 

Princeton, August 4. When the back coun- 
try of America is mentioned in England, mos- 
quitoes by night, and rattlesnakes by day, 
29 



$icture£ of ^llinoi^ 



never fail to alarm the imagination; to say 
nothing of wolves and bears, and panthers, 
and Indians still more ferocious. Our course 
of travelling from the mouth of James River, 
and over the mountains, up to Pittsburgh, 
about five hundred miles; then three hundred 
miles through the woods of the state of Ohio, 
down to Cincinnati; next across the entire 
wilderness of Indiana, and to the extreme 
south of the Illinois. This long and deliberate 
journey one would suppose, might have intro- 
duced our party to an intimate acquaintance 
with some of these pests of America. We 
have, it is true, killed several of the serpent 
tribe; black snakes, garter snakes, etc.; and 
have seen one rattle-snake of extraordinary 
size. We have had mosquitoes in a few damp 
spots, just as we should have had gnats 
in England. In our late expeditions in the 
Illinois, where we have led the lives of thor- 
ough backwoodsmen, if we have been so un- 
fortunate as to pitch our tent on the edge 
of a creek, or near a swamp, and have mis- 
managed our fire, we have been teased with 
mosquitoes, as we might have been in the 
fens of Cambridgeshire: this is the sum 
total of our experience of these reported 
plagues. 

But, for this forbearance, ample amends are 

made by the innumerable tormentors which 

assail you in almost every dwelling, till at 

length you are glad, as evening approaches, 

30 



ffiouig 25irft6ecft 



to avoid the abodes of man, and spread your 
pallet under the trees. 

This indoors calamity is so universal in the 
backwoods that it seems to be unavoidable, 
and is submitted to as such with wondrous 
equanimity. By degrees, however, as the 
present wretched and crowded hovels shall 
give place to roomy and convenient habita- 
tions, the spirit of cleanliness will gain admis- 
sion, and the miseries which always accompany 
filth and disorder will be brushed away, as 
the plagues of Egypt were charmed by Aaron's 
rod. 

Wolves and bears are extremely numerous, 
and (especially the latter) very injurious to 
the newly settled districts. Hogs, which are 
a main dependence for food as well as profit, 
are their constant prey; and their holds are so 
strong, that the hunters are unable to keep 
down their numbers. There is a swamp of 
several miles in length, to the north of Shawnee 
Town, (and, I am told, there are many other 
such places) which is only passable for man 
over the dams made by beavers: here the 
bears are absolute: the swamp affords abun- 
dance of food for hogs also, and they will re- 
sort to it. Yesterday, as I was riding along 
the side of this swamp, a farmer told me he 
had lost eight large hogs there this summer. 

The wolves are very destructive to both 
hogs and sheep; but they seldom attack sheep 
till a few years after a settlement has been 
3i 



pctureg of STOnoig 



made, when accident or hunger induces them 
to make trial of mutton; and when they have 
once tasted it they are not easily deterred. 
Bears are lean in summer and very swift of 
foot, so that dogs can hardly overtake them; 
but in winter they grow excessively fat on 
hickery nuts and other kinds of mast, and are 
unable to run for want of breath; and this is 
the season of bear-hunting. The flesh of bears is 
in high estimation, and the skin is worth from 
three to five dollars, according to the size. 
Neither of these marauders attack man unless 
when they are wounded, when they turn on the 
hunter with great fury. 

August 5. The heat of this climate is not 
so oppressive to my feelings in the open 
prairies as in the deep woods, nor in either so 
much so as I expected. I have been using 
strong exercise through three of the hottest 
days that have been experienced for years, as 
say the people who talk of the weather, in the 
prairies — at Shawnee Town, on the Ohio, 
and here at Princeton — "How did you stand 
the heat of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday?" 
The fact was, that, on one of those days, I 
walked with my gun in the prairie, exposed to 
the sun's rays, in quest of turkeys, and trav- 
elled on horseback the other two, without great 
inconvenience. There is the comfort of a 
breeze every day; and the only breezeless 
sultry night I have experienced, proved the 
prelude to a thunder-storm the succeeding day. 
32 



Jttorrte 2£>irftfiecft 



1 think it may be attributed to these frequent 
thunder-storms, that the summers of this cli- 
mate are so pleasant and salubrious. When 
the fervency of the season becomes oppressive, 
suddenly the clouds collect, and a few rat- 
tling peals are heard; if near, accompanied by 
a soaking shower; if at a distance, you have 
no rain; but the cooling invigorating effect is 
soon perceived in the atmosphere. 

August 7. We are now domiciliated in 
Princeton. Though at the farthest limits of 
Indiana, but two years old, and containing 
about fifty houses, this little town affords re- 
spectable society: it is the county-town, and 
can boast as many well-informed genteel 
people, in proportion to the number of inhabi- 
tants, as any county-town I am acquainted 
with. I think there are half as many indivi- 
duals who are entitled to that distinction as 
there are houses, and not one decidedly vicious 
character, nor one that is not able and willing 
to maintain himself 2 . 

August 10. It is even so. See note of 
July 7 3 . We are on the confines of society, 
among the true backwoodsmen. We have 

2 The portion omitted consists of an account of 
navigation on the Ohio and the Mississippi between 
Louisville and New Orleans. 

3 The note referred to gives an optimistic account 
of the backwoodsmen, written when Birkbeck first 
came among them. 

33 



$icture£ of 3TOnoi£ 



been much among them — have lodged in their 
cabins, and partaken of their wretched and 
scanty fare: they have been our pilots to ex- 
plore situations still more remote and which 
only hunters visit. 

From a nearer view of these people, some- 
thing must be withdrawn from the picture 
which is given of their moral character, in the 
note above referred to. 

It is rather an ill-chosen or unfortunate 
attachment to the hunters' life, than an un- 
principled aversion to the regulations of society, 
which keeps them aloof from the abodes of 
more civilized men. 

They must live where there is plenty of 
"bear and deer, and wild honey." Bear hunt- 
ing is their supreme delight: to enjoy this they 
are content to live in all manner of wretched- 
ness and poverty: yet they are not savage in 
disposition, but honest and kind; ready to for- 
ward our wishes and even to labor for us, 
though our coming will compel them to remove 
to the "outside" again. 

Not a settlement in this country is of a 
year's standing — no harvest has rewarded 
their toil; but our approach, as I anticipated, 
will dislodge many of them, unless they should 
be tempted by our dollars to try the effect of 
labour, instead of the precarious supply de- 
rived from their beloved rifle. Half-a-dozen 
of these people, who had placed themselves 
round a beautiful prairie, have, in fact come 
34 



jHorrig 25irft6ecft 



forward to sell us their all, — fat cattle, hogs, 
and this their first crop of corn, now just 
maturing: if we purchase they will go to some 
deeper recess, and build other cabins, and 
prepare cattle and corn, to be again quitted 
at the approach of some succeeding adven- 
turers like ourselves; who may be considered, 
in this view, as the next grade in society. 

But, that our friends in England, who may 
read these notes, may have an idea of our 
real position, let them consider our two fami- 
lies, viz. that of my friend Mr. George Flower, 
late of Marden, in England, and my own, 
about to be fixed upon eligible sites on our 
two adjoining estates, of fifteen hundred 
acres each, which we have carved for ourselves 
from a beautiful prairie and the adjoining woods. 

Here we are preparing to raise buildings: 
carpenters and builders have offered them- 
selves: estimates are made and materials are at 
hand. We are also providing for gardens and 
orchards, that we may literally "sit under our 
own vines and our own fig trees.' ' We might 
now mow many hundred acres of valuable 
grass, if we had a stock of cattle to require it. 

The fee simple of each of these estates 
amounts to three thousand dollars, £ I, 350 
sterling; they are liable to a land tax of thirty 
dollars a year to the general government, and 
about the same to the county, together some- 
thing more than one penny per acre. 

We shall have a certain and good market 
35 



pctures? of gilinote 



for produce from the growing population; or 
by export down the Ohio. 

Cattle and hogs thrive well, and even fatten, 
especially the latter, to a great size on the food 
they find; and there is no bound to the number 
that may be raised, but in the ability of the 
breeder. They require little care, except to 
protect them from bears and wolves — keeping 
them tame, by giving them salt frequently. 

On these estates we hope to live much as 
we have been accustomed to live in England : 
but this is not the country for fine gentlemen 
or fine ladies of any class or description, 
especially for those who love state, and require 
abundance of attendants. 

To be easy and comfortable here, a man 
should know how to wait upon himself, and 
practice it, much more, indeed, than is common 
among the Americans themselves, on whom 
the accursed practice of slave-keeping has, I 
think, entailed habits of indolence, even where 
it has been abolished. It has also produced 
among those, who have no objection to earning 
their subsistence by labour in any other way, 
a bigotted aversion to domestic service. House- 
slaves are called "servants," and the word 
"slave" and "servant," are in many places 
synonymous, meaning "slave." Thus abhor- 
ring the name of domestic service, as implying 
slavery, they keep their young people at home 
in indolence, and often in rags, when they 
might be improved in every way, by the easy 
36 



Iftorrig 25irftbecft 



employment offered them in the farms of their 
more affluent neighbours. 

This prejudice against a name, I should 
think might gradually be surmounted, by good 
management, and the powerful co-operation of 
self interest. But, however this may be, fami- 
lies, who remove into western America, either 
from Europe, or the Atlantic states, should 
bring with them the power and the inclination to 
dispense in a great degree, with domestic ser- 
vants. How far this may be carried,consistently 
with real comfort, is yet to be proved; but, I 
believe, very far, by the aid of various mechani- 
cal and economical contrivances, which money 
may procure where it cannot procure servants; 
and these aided by a simple system of living. 

After all, some real convenience, and some 
agreeable reflections, arise out of the scarcity of 
domestics: — parade entertainments are dis- 
couraged by it; and, if altogether relinquished, 
so much the better: hospitality need not suffer. 

There is also compensation for some priva- 
tions, in reflecting that you are not here 
surrounded by crowds of indigent fellow- 
creatures, who would gladly pick up the 
crumbs that fall from your table. With more 
of these, the rich might supply their domestic 
establishments: but who is the American who 
desires such a state of things? 

The inconvenience sustained by a few may 
be cheerfully borne when we consider that it 
arises out of the general prosperity. 
37 



Part II 

A Tour in Southern Illinois 
in 1822 






a afoirc in 
^>out^erit 3]Uinoi$ in 1822 

[From William Blane : An excursion through the United 
States and Canada, during the years 1822-1823.] 



FROM Vincennes, I turned to the left, in 
order to cross White River, below the 
junction of its two Forks, and proceed 
through Princetown and Harmony, to Birk- 
beck's English settlement at Albion. 

The road, or rather path, to the ferry on 
White River, runs chiefly through low flat Bar- 
rens, with here and there a patch of Prairie. 
Upon arriving at the bank, I found the ice 
running so thick, and in such very large cakes, 
that the boat could not cross. Some men with 
a drove of hogs had already waited there 
two days, and the ferryman said that I had 
very little chance of being able to cross for a 
day or two, and perhaps not for a week. I 
therefore determined to cross the country, in 
a westerly direction, so as to meet the Wabash 
just above its junction with White River. 

Upon inquiring of the ferrymen, if there were 
any house in the neighbourhood at which I 
could stop, they informed me that there was 
only one, which belonged to a Scotch gentleman 
who had lately settled in this part of the coun- 
41 



$icture£ of SWinoig 



try. "But although," said one of them, "I am 
certain he does not keep open house, yet per- 
haps as you are a stranger, he will allow you 
to stay there tonight.' ' 

As it was getting late I determined to lose 
no time, and accordingly, after a ride through 
the woods of about two miles, I found myself 
at the settlement. 

The house, which was of a much better de- 
scription than any I had lately seen, was situated 
on a gentle rise, overlooking the river, and sur- 
rounded with a large space of cleared land. I 
dismounted, and upon opening the door was 
delighted to see six or seven men in Highland 
bonnets, sitting around a blazing fire. I men- 
tioned to the gentleman that I was a stranger, 
and should feel much obliged to him for a 
night's lodging for myself and my horse; upon 
which he immediately, with the genuine hospi- 
tality I have so often experienced in his native 
land, said that I was welcome to stay there, 
and to partake of whatever his house afforded. 

He had left Perthshire at the head of twenty 
of his countrymen, and had fixed himself on 
this spot; and although he had only been here 
eight months, had already put everything into 
very good order. 

My fare was sumptuous, compared to what 
it had been for some time past; and moreover 
I had a good bed to sleep in, with a pair of 
fine clean sheets. 

I am particular in noticing this luxury, be- 
42 



William i^ctonljam 25Iane 

cause it was only in two other places that I 
enjoyed it, during the whole of my travels, in 
the States of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. 
In general the beds were altogether without 
sheets; and the blankets had probably, since 
their manufacture, never experienced the reno- 
vating effects of a good washing. Sometimes 
indeed there would be one sheet, and occasion- 
ally two; but cleanliness in this particular I 
had almost despaired of. 

Many of my countrymen, because they have 
not met with much comfort in these out of the 
way places, have, upon their return home, 
most unjustly and ridiculously imputed the 
same want of comfort to every part of the 
United States. But let us consider, that from 
Vincennes to Louisville is a distance of 120 
miles, and that from thence to Washington, 
by the ordinary route up the Ohio river and 
through Wheeling is 731 miles: so that one 
of these delicate travellers would be equally 
entitled to abuse the whole of Great Britain, 
because he might meet with bad accommoda- 
tions in the Orkneys. Moreover, woods are 
not cut down, and good inns established, in a 
day, nor even a year; and he who cannot put 
up with some inconvenience will do well to 
avoid travelling in a new country.* 

*In many places where I have met with execrable 
accommodations, future travellers will find good 
inns ; for the whole country is so rapidly improving, 
that what is true of the Backwoods one year ceases to 
be so the next. 

43 



pcture£ of 3TOnoi£ 



This settlement is in a beautiful situation, 
surrounded by fertile land; but alas! it has 
shared the fate of all the neighbourhood with 
regard to sickness ; two of the emigrants having 
died, and several others being very ill. I went 
away in the morning, after receiving an invita- 
tion from my worthy host to repeat my visit 
if I should ever pass again in that direction. 

The path from hence to the Wabash, lies 
through a thickly wooded country, abounding 
in game. I expected to have had much diffi- 
culty in crossing the river; for though there 
was a ferry boat, it had been drawn ashore 
and was frozen to the ground. Fortunately, 
however, I found a man going over in a flat 
boat with some cattle. The Wabash just above 
had closed up and frozen over, so that here, 
where the stream was very rapid, there was 
little or no floating ice. After crossing, I rode 
along the right bank to Palmyra. This most 
dirty, miserable little village was once the county 
town of Edwards County, Illinois; an honour 
which is lost, in consequence of the superior 
healthiness of Albion. 

After stopping a night at Palmyra, I pro- 
ceeded along a road which was in a very bad 
state, and which was very difficult to find. 
About two miles before arriving at the Bon-pas 
river is one of the largest and worst swamps 
I ever passed through. I can form no idea of 
its length; but it is full two miles broad where 
the road crosses it. At the Bon-pas, five miles 
44 



William i^etonljam 2BIane 

from Albion, I found a wooden bridge, which 
is a great convenience to travellers, as they 
would otherwise often have to swim the stream, 
both the banks of which are steep and slippery. 

On arriving at the far-famed settlement of 
Albion, I found that it by no means merited all 
the abuse I had heard of it in England. The 
town is indeed small; but has at any rate a very 
pleasing appearance, as contrasted with most 
of those in the Backwoods. 

I was hospitably received by Mr. Birkbeck 
and Mr. Flowers. They both have large houses. 
That belonging to Mr. Flowers is a peculiarly 
good one, and is very well furnished. One 
room in particular was carpeted, and contained 
a nice assortment of books, and a pianoforte; 
all luxuries of great rarity in these remote 
districts. The inn is a well-built brick house, 
and might have been made very comfortable; 
yet, although kept by an Englishman, it has 
none of the characteristics of an English inn; 
but, on the contrary, partakes largely of those 
of the Backwoods; so much so indeed, as to 
be a subject of remark even to the Americans. 
I stayed here several days without having clean 
sheets. 

While at Albion I read all the books and 
reviews that have been written both for and 
against this settlement. One traveller describes 
it as an earthly paradise, another as a miserable 
unhealthy swamp; the truth is about midway 
between these extremes. 

45 



$icture£ of gilinoi** 



Albion is situated on a dividing ridge, as it 
is called, which separates the waters of the 
Little, from those of the Big Wabash. On 
this account it is more healthy than most of 
the neighbouring country, though it is not at 
all times free from the prevalent autumnal 
disease — an ague, accompanied with fever. 
The year I was there the settlement had been 
remarkably healthy; which surprised me the 
more, as wherever else I had travelled, the 
people complained of illness. 

Albion and Wanborough, of which Albion 
is by much the most thriving little village, are 
about a mile and a half distant from each other, 
and border on the fine tract of land called the 
English Prairie. All the prairies in the neigh- 
bourhood of Albion are remarkably beautiful. 
These large natural meadows, when not too 
extensive, remind one of a nobleman's park in 
England. Surrounded by forest, which juts 
out into them in points, and occasionally diver- 
sified with clumps and belts of wood, they form 
a most agreeable prospect, especially after one 
has passed through such an interminable wil- 
derness of trees. 

Albion seems to be greatly in want of good 
water; for though many wells have been dug, 
in which this most necessary article has been 
found, yet the village itself is still without an 
ample supply during the dry season. 

The settlement has been considerably bene- 
fitted by having been lately elevated to the 
46 



William |^etonf>am 2Mane 

rank of a county seat; and it will, no doubt, 
some day or other, become a place of im- 
portance. 

The farms in the neighbourhood are increas- 
ing in magnitude and number. The year I was 
there the settlers had exported produce for the 
first time. The way they effected this, was by 
loading several flat boats with com, flour, pork, 
beef, sausages, etc., and floating them down the 
Wabash into the Ohio, and from thence down the 
Mississippi to New Orleans, a distance of about 
1,140 miles. The mere length of this naviga- 
tion proves that the settlement is capable of 
great efforts. But the grand objection is the 
general unhealthiness of the neighbouring 
country; for if the Illinois were as healthy 
as England, it would soon equal, or even sur- 
pass, all that Mr. Birkbeck has written in its 
favor. 

One of the principal inducements to settle 
at Albion, in preference to any other place in 
the State, is, that there is a very clever Eng- 
lish Surgeon there, who having had a regular 
education under Abernethy, and walked the 
Hospitals in London, must be a great acquisi- 
tion to families in the neighbourhood. Persons 
who have not visited the Western States can- 
not have any idea of the general ignorance of 
the practitioners of medicine. A young man, 
after an apprenticeship of a year or two in the 
shop of some ignorant apothecary, or at the 
most, after a very superficial course of study 
47 



$icture£ of ^Hinoig 



at some school or college, is entitled to cure 
(or rather kill) all the unhappy Backwoodsmen 
who may apply to him for advice. It would 
be well if they were all as harmless in their 
practice as Dr. Elnathan Todd, a person de- 
scribed in the Pioneers, an American novel, 
and whose character, drawn to the life, gives a 
good idea of one of these physicians. Indeed, 
to become a doctor in the Backwoods, it is only 
necessary to have a cabin containing 50 or 100 
dollars' worth of drugs, with a board over the 
door, affirming that this is Dr. M. or N.'s 
"Store." 

What appeared to me to be one of the great 
drawbacks to settling at Albion, was, that there 
were two parties who were in open hostility 
with one another, and whose eternal prosecu- 
tions enabled two lawyers, even in this small 
settlement, to thrive upon the dissensions of 
the community. Mr. Flowers was the person, 
against whom the greatest indignation of the 
opposite party was pointed; but, although I 
was at the time informed of their mutual 
grievances, yet I have since so entirely forgot- 
ten them, that I cannot take upon me to say 
which party was in the right. I must confess, 
however, I was greatly mortified at seeing 
these foolish people, after having left their 
country, crossed the Atlantic, and travelled 
IOOO miles into the wilderness, quarrelling with 
one another and making each other's situation 
as disagreeable as possible. The hostile par- 
48 



William i^etontjam 25Iane 

ties do not even speak; and thus the respectable 
inhabitants, who might constitute a very plea- 
sant little society, are entirely kept apart from 
one another. 

The lower class of English at Albion, that 
is, the common labourers and manufacturers, 
have, I am sorry to say, very much degenerated; 
for they have copied all the vices of the Back- 
woodsmen, but none of their virtues — drinking, 
fighting, etc., and, when fighting, "gouging* ' 
and biting. In England, if two men quarrel, 
they settle their dispute by what is called "a 
stand up fight." The by-standers form a ring, 
and even if one of the combatants wish it, he is 
not permitted to strike his fallen antagonist. 
This is a manly, honourable custom, which the 
people of England have good reason to be 
proud of. But fighting in the Backwoods is 
conducted upon a plan, which is only worthy 
of the most ferocious savages. The object of 
each combatant is to take his adversary by sur- 
prise; and then, as soon as he has thrown him 
down, either to "gouge" him, that is, to poke 
his eye out, or else to get his nose or ear into his 
mouth and bite it off. I saw an Englishman at 
Albion who had a large piece bitten out of his 
under lip. Until I went into the Backwoods, I 
could never credit the existence of such a savage 
mode of fighting. I believe something of the 
same kind was once customary in Lancashire; 
but it has, since the days of pugilism, been 
totally exploded. This abominable practice of 
49 



$ictuteg of SWinoig 



gouging is the greatest defect in the character 
of the Backwoodsmen. 

With regard to Mr. Birkbeck's letters, every 
one who has lately been at the settlement, 
must allow, that the description he has given 
of the advantages of the situation, is somewhat 
exaggerated. But I also believe, that every 
one who knows Mr. Birkbeck, must be perfectly 
convinced that his exaggerations were uninten- 
tional; and this I am sure would be granted, 
even by those who have found to their cost, 
that it is much more difficult to increase one's 
capital in Illinois than in England. 

When Mr. Birkbeck first arrived in this State, 
land, and particularly produce, bore a much 
higher price than it does at present. Hence 
this Gentleman, being rather an enthusiast, and 
viewing only the bright side of things, described 
the country in a manner, which, even at the 
time, was not literally correct. But the transi- 
tion from war to peace, from an annual expen- 
diture of 33,000,000 dollars to 13,000,000, 
combined with the opening of so much new terri- 
tory, and with other fortuitous circumstances, 
has now reduced the western farmers to great 
distress. Indeed the agriculturists of all the 
Western States have suffered nearly as much 
as the same class of people in Great Britain. 
Mr. Birkbeck has participated in the general 
calamity, as it is well known that he does not 
possess as many dollars at this moment, as he 
did pounds sterling when he left England. But 
50 



William |^etonl)am 25Iane 

for this, which was his misfortune, and not his 
fault, he has been greatly and unjustly calum- 
niated in several publications. 

I must however beg to be understood, that 
I by no means advise my countrymen to emi- 
grate to Albion, or indeed to any other place 
whatsoever. On the contrary, I am convinced 
that any one, who has even a prospect of making 
a decent livelihood in England, would be a fool 
and a madman to remove to the Illinois. 

To the family-man, who finds his property 
and his comforts daily diminishing, without any 
prospect of their changing for the better, the 
English settlement may be an object worth 
attending to; though, for my own part, should 
I ever be obliged to emigrate (which I trust in 
heaven will never be the case), I should give a 
decided preference to the State of New York, 
or to Canada, or Pennsylvania, for reasons to 
be mentioned hereafter. 

A bachelor has no business in the Backwoods; 
for in a wild country, where it is almost impos- 
sible to hire assistance of any kind, either male 
or female, a man is thrown entirely upon him- 
self. Let any one imagine the uncomfortable- 
ness of inhabiting a log-cabin, where one is 
obliged to cut wood, clean the room, cook one's 
victuals, etc., etc., without any assistance what- 
soever; and he will then feel the situation of 
many unhappy young men, who have come to 
this settlement, even from London, and quite 
by themselves. To a family-man the case is 
5i 



$icture£ of ^Uinoi^ 



different. When isolated from the world, as 
every one must expect to be who goes to the 
Backwoods, he has an immense resource in 
domestic enjoyments, and particularly in the 
care and education of his children. How dif- 
ferent from the solitary inhabitant of a log- 
cabin in this most solitary country! 

But even the married emigrants cannot be 
perfectly happy. How often have I observed 
the love of their native land, rising in the 
hearts of those of my exiled countrymen, whom 
I have met with in different parts of this vast 
continent! When I have spoken to them of 
England, and particularly if I had been in the 
countries or villages where they once dwelt, 
their eyes have glistened, and their voice has 
been almost choked with grief. Many a one 
has declared to me, that it was with the most 
heart-rending anguish, that he determined to 
abandon his home and his relations. But what 
could he do? poverty stared him in the face. 
Many a one has told me, over and over again, 
that were the tithes and poor-rates taken 
away, or were they even only diminished so 
that he could make a shift to live, he would 
return to his native land with the most un- 
feigned joy. 

I recollect that some time after this, I met, 
at Harmony in Indiana, one of our fine English 
yeomen who had emigrated with a considerable 
sum of money. He told me that the desire of 
returning home had of late preyed so much 
52 



William |£etonf)am 2Mane 

upon his mind, that he would have gone, but 
for the receipt of some letters that stated the 
terrible agricultural distress in England. "If, 
sir," said he, "I could only make shift to live 
at all, I would certainly go back immediately. 
My old woman is pining to revisit her relations 
and her long lost home, and she entreats me 
to return, if even we should work for our daily 
bread. I have been making arrangements, and 
have even sold most of my stock; but now 
this letter tells me I could not live. I have but 
little money, and if I could not rent a farm 
upon which I could gain a subsistence, I should 
at last become a pauper. It is only the shame 
of this that detains me here. I assure you, 
sir, I have never ceased to regret the hasty 
step I took in leaving my country; but the fear 
of losing my all drove me away." 

I do not pretend to understand the mysteries 
of government; but I am sure no one could 
have heard this man, and could then have laid 
his hand on his heart, and said that he sincerely 
believed, the happiness of the English people 
was properly attended to. Can it be politic, 
setting aside all thoughts of justice, to drive 
away the hardy peasant by depriving him of 
his well earned pence? And to whom is this 
money given? To sinecurists, who are often 
already enormously rich, and to churchmen, 
whose primates live in a state of more than 
princely luxury, and the aggregate of whose 
revenues is nearly equal to that of all the other 
53 



$icture£ of ^Hinoi^ 



protestant clergy in the whole world. Surely 
we may say with Goldsmith: — 

"Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade, 
A breath can make them, as a breath has made; 
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
When once destroyed can never be supplied." 

Supposing a man intends to emigrate, he 
should contrast the good with the bad, and will 
then, from his own sentiments, be able to de- 
termine what course to take. A man in Eng- 
land enjoys numberless little comforts which he 
does not appreciate. Moreover, with moderate 
temperence, he has the certainty of enjoying 
good health. But when he goes to the Back- 
woods of America, he has everything to do for 
himself; he has a difficulty even of obtaining 
shoes, clothes, etc.; and he then begins to call 
luxuries what he once considered only as neces- 
saries. He lives in a log-cabin, cut off as it 
were from the world, and in all probability 
suffers from the prevailing diseases of the 
country. As to the specious accounts and cal- 
culations, that he is to increase his capital, and 
make his fortune; so far is this from the truth, 
that if he once invest his money in land, he 
is compelled to remain, out of inability to dis- 
pose of it. Money and land are not, as in 
England, convertible; and it often happens, 
that land in the Backwoods, cannot be disposed 
of at any price. 

Nevertheless, I must allow that emigration 
offers some great advantages. In the United 
54 



William |£etonl>am 2Mane 

States a man, instead of renting a farm, can, 
for a small sum of money, become a respect- 
able landholder. He will no longer be pestered 
every quarter-day, for rent, and tithes, and 
poor-rates. There is indeed a land-tax, but it 
is so trifling that it may be left out of any cal- 
culation, not being annually more than one 
farthing per acre. The emigrant becomes here 
independent: he is even considered as a mem- 
ber of the great political body; for, as is the 
case in the State of Illinois, after residing six 
months he is entitled to vote, and at the end 
of five years, by becoming a citizen, is eligible 
to any office or place in the whole United 
States, President only excepted. Though the 
gain of the colonist be but small, his mind 
is at ease. His fortune cannot well dimin- 
ish, and with moderate industry may slowly 
increase. At all events he can look forward 
without anxiety to the establishment of the 
family. 

As, however, every one views things in a 
different light, I most earnestly recommend all 
persons intending to emigrate, to visit the 
country before they move their families to it. 
Indeed it is a duty which the emigrant owes 
them, to see the place he intends to remove 
them to. The whole expence of a journey from 
England, even to Illinois, and back again, 
might, by taking a steerage passage across the 
Atlantic, be easily included in ioo£; a sum, 
which a man with even a small capital could 

55 



$icture£ of 3Winoi$ 



not grudge, in so momentous a concern as that 
of emigrating. I have, moreover, no hesitation 
in saying, that the ioo£ would be well laid 
out, even should he afterwards determine to 
emigrate. By going through the country, he 
would have an opportunity of seeing several 
States, and could judge which would best suit 
his ideas of comfort and profit. He would 
inform himself accurately about the life of the 
American farmers, and about the value of land 
as connected with the healthiness of its situa- 
tion, and of its proximity to a market or a 
navigable river. He should also inform him- 
self concerning the methods of cultivation; for 
it must be considered, that although an English 
farmer may know very well how to raise wheat 
and oats, he is perfectly ignorant of the culture 
of cotton, tobacco, and particularly of Indian 
corn, which is the grand staple of the Southern 
and Western States, and of which 500 bushels 
are raised for every bushel of any other grain. 
Indeed most of the small Backwoods farmers 
do not cultivate anything else. 

If four or five families from the same part 
of England wish to emigrate, they would do 
well to send first of all one of their own num- 
ber, a poor man, but upon whom they could 
rely. His journey would cost much less than 
ioo£.; perhaps only 50£; for, on arriving at 
the other side of the water, he might travel on 
foot, and yet go as far in three days as a horse- 
man would in two. 

56 



William i^etonfjam 25Iane 

By adopting such a plan the emigrant may 
become independent of books, which at most 
are but fallacious guides; every one, in his 
views of a strange country, being influenced 
more or less by his former mode of life. 

A poor man would, I think, if willing to 
work, live more comfortably in the State of 
New York, or in Pennsylvania, than in the Illi- 
nois; but then he could not so easily become 
an independent landholder. 

There is one class of people, however, whom 
I must on no account dissuade from emigration, 
I mean the poor Irish. Never, in all my travels, 
have I seen any set of people who are so 
wretched as these. The poorest Swiss or Ger- 
man peasant, is rich and well off compared to 
them. Persecuted, and put almost out of the 
pale of the law, on account of their faith; 
obliged, when almost starving, to stint them- 
selves in food, in order to support a religion 
they abhor; living on roots; often not having 
enough even of these ; and probably not tasting 
bread or meat once a year; — surely such men 
cannot but find any change advantageous. I 
verily believe, that the poorer class in Kerry 
are no better off, and no more civilized, than 
when Ireland was first conquered by Earl 
Strongbow. If they could emigrate en masse, 
they would become superior beings, and I would 
strongly advise every one of them, who pos- 
sesses the means of getting to the sea-side, to 
work or beg his passage over, and go where 
57 



$ictureg of ^llinoitf 



he may, so that at all events he may quit his 
native land — that den of human wretchedness. 

Before concluding the subject of emigration, 
I must say, though with bitter feelings of regret, 
that it is the intention of the people of the 
Illinois to constitute themselves a slave-holding 
State. So powerful is avarice, and so weak is 
patriotism, that many inhabitants, to whom I 
spoke upon the subject, acknowledged that it 
would ultimately be a great curse to the State; 
but this was indifferent to them, as they in- 
tended going away. These wretches think, 
that if their State can be made a slave state, 
many of the wealthy southern planters will 
emigrate to it, and that thus the price of 
land will be increased. As they wish to sell 
theirs, many will on that account vote for 
slavery. 

Now the present constitution of Illinois 
(Art. 6.) says: "Neither slavery nor involuntary 
servitude shall hereafter be introduced into 
this State, otherwise than for the punishment 
of crimes whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted: nor shall any male person ar- 
rived at the age of twenty-one years, nor female 
person arrived at the age of eighteen years, be 
held to serve any person as a servant, under 
any indenture hereafter made, unless such per- 
son shall enter into such indenture while in a 
state of perfect freedom, and on condition of 
a bona fide consideration, received, or to be 
received, for their service." 
58 



William jiletanrfjam 25lane 

The legislature of Illinois meets only once 
in two years, and by the constitution, if any 
alteration be required, all that can be done by 
the legislature, in which the proposition for an 
alteration is brought forward, is to advise the 
people to enable the next legislature, to call a 
convention of the whole State, for the purpose 
of making the said alteration. In order to give 
this advice, there must be a majority of two- 
thirds. I grieve to say, that when I was there 
this majority had been obtained. As, however, 
the convention cannot be called for two years, 
there is some little hope that the emigrants 
from the Northern and New England States, 
who are all strongly opposed to slavery, may 
increase so as to make head against the propo- 
sition. There is also some little chance, that 
the General Government of the United States 
will, as it ought, interfere. Neither, however, 
of these chances appeared to me to be very great . 

Those who have been the cause of this con- 
vention, are the men who have come from the 
slave-holding States. On their success in get- 
ting the votes of two-thirds of the legislature, 
the Conventionalists assembled at two or three 
public dinners, at which they drank, among 
other toasts, "The State of Illinois — give us 
plenty of negroes, a little industry, and she will 
distribute her treasures." tl A new constitution, 
purely republican, which may guarantee to the 
people of Illinois the peaceable enjoyment of 
all species of property." 

59 



$icture£ of ^ilinoig 



What mortified me the most, was to find 
that many of the English at Albion were in 
favor of the iniquitous plan. Some few indeed 
of the more respectable are opposed to it; and 
Birkbeck and Flowers have even declared, that 
should it be carried into effect, they will leave 
the State. It remains to be seen how far they 
are sincere. There are, on the other hand, 
certain miscreants, who have fled from their 
own country, to avoid, as they tell you, the 
tyranny of tithes and taxes, and who have yet 
no hesitation in giving their vote for merciless 
personal slavery, and the consequent entailing 
of endless misery and degradation, upon tens 
of thousands of their fellow men. It is the 
conduct of such unprincipled wretches as these, 
that gives a handle to the serviles of Europe 
to declaim against liberty, by showing that 
there are some men utterly unworthy to enjoy 
it. It always annoyed me that any person in 
a free country should uphold slavery; but I felt 
it doubly mortifying, to discover, that among 
such wretches, there were Englishmen. 

Upon leaving Albion, I determined to"strike' ' 
the road leading to St. Louis in the State of 
Missouri, by taking a North-west course of 
about forty miles across the country. The 
road, or trace as it is more properly called, 
leading to Cat's Ferry on the Little Wabash, is 
through a wild country, and is somewhat dif- 
ficult to find. For a considerable distance it 
runs through some beautiful little Prairies, 
60 



William HJetonftam 25Iane 

which appear to be very fertile, if one may 
judge from the lofty stalks of Indian corn, 
which continue standing, during the winter, 
round the cabin of occasional settlers. 

In travelling through these Prairies, every 
one must be struck with the vast number of 
a species of grouse, called "Prairie Fowls." 
These very much resemble the Scotch grouse, 
both in color, and in being feathered to the 
feet; but are somewhat larger. They differ 
however in this particular, viz., that when dis- 
turbed, they will settle upon a fence or tree, 
if any be near. They are delicious eating, and 
are killed in great numbers by the unrivalled 
marksmen of this country. After driving up a 
flock of these birds, the hunter advances within 
fifteen or twenty paces, raises his long heavy 
rifle, and rarely misses striking the bird on the 
head. I have witnessed over and over again 
this surprising accuracy, and have fired away 
numberless pounds of lead in trying to imitate it, 
but without success. I contented myself there- 
fore with shooting the birds in the body, by 
which I rather tore and spoilt them. But, how- 
ever difficult I found it to hit the bird anywhere 
with a single ball, the Backwoodsmen regarded 
my unsportmanlike shooting with as much con- 
tempt, as one of our country squires feels, 
when a cockney shoots at a covey of partridges 
on the ground. 

I have seen at one time, several hundreds 
of Prairie fowls in a flock. They would afford 
61 



picture** of ^Hinoi^ 



excellent sport to any one who could procure 
a smooth-bored gun — an article, which, unless 
brought to Albion by the English settlers, is 
unknown throughout the whole of the Illinois. 
If a person with this sort of gun were an adept 
in shooting flying, he might easily kill a hun- 
dred birds, or even more, in a day. But shooting 
flying is an art wholly unknown to the Back- 
woodsmen. Indeed I have often been amused, 
when speaking to them on this subject, to see 
with what scepticism they have received my 
accounts, gravely asking me, whether I really 
meant that any one with a double-barrelled 
gun, could kill two birds on the wing, one after 
the other. 

On these occasions I have been asked, when 
they discovered what country I belonged to, 
whether it were really true, that a man in Eng- 
land might not kill deer, if he found them in a 
forest. They were much astonished, and sel- 
dom gave me full credit, when I told them, 
that not only a man might not kill deer, but 
unless he possessed land of a certain value, and 
were also provided with a license, he could 
not kill even the partridges and pheasants 
which lived upon his own wheat. Such fla- 
grant injustice, appeared to them impossible; 
and I was sometimes obliged to explain, that 
the English game-laws are the remains of a 
Feudal oppression which formerly punished 
the killing of a hare by death, while homicide 
could be atoned for by a fine. 
62 



William |iietonf)am 2BIane 

While I was passing through a point of wood 
running into one of the Prairies, two racoons, 
who had come out to enjoy the fine weather, 
ran up a small tree, so near me, that had I 
been inclined I could easily have killed them 
both. These animals are very numerous, and 
their fine and soft skins are worth about 20 
cents (iO;/) each. 

I was much amused by a story told me about 
these skins. "Money was at one time so scarce 
in Indiana, that racoon skins passed current, 
being handled from one person to another. 
But some Yankees (New Englanders) forged 
these notes, by sewing a racoon's tail to a cat's 
skin, and thus destroyed the currency." This, 
like many other good stories about the Yan- 
kees, is no doubt a fiction; and was only in- 
tended to perpetuate the'dislike of the New Eng- 
landers, who nevertheless excel all the settlers, 
in industry, education, civility, and morality. 

I found Fox river quite frozen, except in one 
place, where the ice had been broken, in order, 
apparently, that the stream might be forded 
by some cattle, the marks of whose hoofs were 
visible upon the snow and earth. I had been 
told, before leaving Albion, that the ford was 
a very bad one, and that I should perhaps have 
to swim. But, in addition to other difficulties, 
I found the banks uncommonly steep and slip- 
pery. However, as it was getting dark, I made 
up my mind for an immersion, and was just 
preparing to plunge in, when three hunters 
63 



$icture£ of ^Uinoi^ 



coming out of the wood on my left, shouted 
out that the river was not fordable. When 
they came up, they addressed me as usual, 
with, "Stranger, where are you going? where 
did you come from? etc., etc." Having an- 
swered their questions, I began asking them 
about the ford, the trace, etc. They told me, 
I could not possibly go that night to Cat's 
Ferry, as it was twelve miles off, and the path- 
way very difficult to find, even during daylight, 
when the "Mazing"* on the trees was visible. 
They added, there was no house in the whole 
distance. "But, "said one of them, "my house 
is only four miles off, and although it is out 
of your road, you had better go home with me, 
or you will lose your way; and you will find 
sleeping out very unpleasant, as it will freeze 
sharply to-night." The men who addressed 
me were all in hunting-shirts, and had with 
them their rifles, tomahawks, and knives. From 
this formidable appearance, I at first almost 
hesitated to trust myself with them; but upon 
reflecting that if they intended me any harm, 
they could shoot me at once and throw me 
into the river, I perceived the folly of my sus- 
picions. They very civilly helped me to take 
off my saddle and saddle-bags, which two of 

*When a road is first of all made through the woods, 
and before many of the trees have been cut down, 
someone gives every fifth or sixth tree in the intended 
line, two or three chops, with an axe, which marks are 
essential to finding the way. This is called "blazing." 

64 



^iHiam i^etonljam 2Mane 

them assisted me to carry, till we came to some 
drift wood, fixed in the ice, and upon which we 
crossed. The third man remained behind, and 
when we had returned opposite to the ford, 
drove in my horse, who swam over, and mounted 
the bank, though not without some difficulty. 
The man then went down the river, crossed 
the driftwood, and joined us. 

It was now quite dark, and as I accompanied 
these men through the belts of wood, and over 
the prairies between the river and their house 
I could not help reflecting, that they might, 
without even the possibility of suspicion, dis- 
miss me from this best of all possible worlds, 
and afterwards appropriate to themselves, my 
saddle-bags, watch, money, and horse. 

As I was a perfect stranger, no one would 
have inquired about me; and indeed if I had 
been an inhabitant of an adjoining State, and 
had had friends who could have made a search 
for me, the murderers could have never been 
discovered, or even any trace of the murder 
have been obtained, in so wild a part of the 
country. Yet these fears were entirely ground- 
less, for I have been alone, in the woods and 
Prairies at all hours of the day and night, and 
never met with anything in the shape of danger. 

In the Atlantic States, indeed, I had heard 
a great many stories about the danger of passing 
through the Backwoods, but I could scarcely, 
when there, hear any authentic accounts even 
of robberies. 

65 



$ictureg of ^Ilinoi^ 



It may not here be amiss to say something 
about the manners and characters of the back 
settlers of the country. 

The first who penetrate into the woods, and 
who dwell on the very frontiers of civilization, 
are the Hunters. These men lead a wandering 
life, much resembling that of their occasional 
companions, the Indians. They subsist almost 
entirely on game; and what little money they 
make is obtained by the sale of furs, etc. As 
soon as the country begins to be settled, and 
when, consequently, game becomes scarce, the 
Hunters break up their habitations, and move 
further off. It has been the fashion in the 
United States to speak ill of these men, but, I 
think, without reason. There are no doubt 
among them very bad and profligate characters, 
who, having fled from justice, have adopted 
this mode of life; but such persons are not very 
often heard of. And indeed they have no right 
to the title of Hunters; for, of course, they are 
not very skillful in killing game, using the rifle, 
etc. It is requisite for a Hunter to have been 
accustomed to this from his earliest infancy; 
and it may easily be imagined, that a man who 
has fled from some city for committing forgery, 
or any other crime, would make but a bad Hunt- 
er; in the same way as in England, an engraver, 
if obliged to quit his trade, would make but a 
bad gamekeeper. 

For my own part, and as far as my own 
observations go, I shall always speak well of 
66 



William |[ietonJ)am 25Iane 

the real Hunters; for I have invariably found 
them open-hearted and very hospitable. Their 
manner of life, indeed, makes them, in some 
degree, partake of the Indian character, though 
they by no means have the same nobleness of 
sentiment, and high sense of honor. 

The next in order, after the Hunters, are the 
Squatters. Some of these men have been Hunt- 
ers, who, from the increase of their families, 
can no longer pursue their former mode of life. 
But whatever the Squatters may have originally 
been, they kill a great deal of game, and are 
fond of hunting, though they do not depend 
upon it for subsistence. 

Lastly come the farmers and more sub- 
stantial settlers, who buy their land, either 
from the government or from individuals, clear 
away the woods, break up the Prairies, and 
carry on their operations on a large scale. 
These are the men, who, assembling together 
on particular spots, found small villages, 
which not unfrequently increase into populous 
towns. 

Almost the first thing done, after making a 
road to one of these towns, as they are always 
called, however small they may be, is to estab- 
lish a newspaper; which probably is at first 
only issued weekly, and is small in size. Be- 
sides matters of local interest, it contains 
abstracts of the debates in Congress, most of 
the new laws, etc; but always has a consider- 
able portion filled up with extracts from books 
67 



$icture£ of ^Hinoig 



or magazines concerning scientific and useful 
inventions. 

But to return to my guides. 

Upon arriving at our place of destination, I 
found it a miserable log cabin of only one 
room. What grieved me particularly was, that 
there was no shelter for my horse, who was 
wet and cold from his bath, and whom I had to 
tie for the night to a tree. 

A log cabin of the smaller sort is a curious 
object when first seen. Each wall is made of 
large rough logs of wood, laid one on another, 
and which are notched at the ends to let in 
those of the other walls. As there is always 
more or less space between the logs, small 
pieces of wood are driven in to stop up the 
interstices. This operation is called chinking', 
and before it has been performed, the cabin, 
in winter, would be uninhabitable from the cold, 
were it not for the great fire that is always kept 
up. The whole, or nearly the whole of one 
side of the cabin forms a huge fire-place, the 
wall being protected from the flames by large 
flat stones. When, of a winter's evening, the 
back of the fire-place is filled with a great 
log called the "back-log," and is piled up 
with large billets of wood, it forms a very 
comfortable and cheering spectacle. The en- 
virons of the cabin appear very extraordinary 
to an European; for it is generally built in 
a small clear spot in the midst of a forest, and 
surrounded with large trees which have been 
68 



William $etonl)am 2Mane 

girdled* and blackened with fire, till they re- 
semble huge pillars of charcoal. 

After supping upon venison and hommony, 
I wrapped myself in my saddle-blanket, and 
making a pillow of my saddle, as I had often 
done before, laid myself down before the fire, 
and fell asleep. 

The next morning, my host, who would re- 
ceive no recompense for his hospitality, walked 
a mile with me, to put me into the proper 
direction for "striking" the path leading to 
Cat's Ferry. 

After seeing an immense number of deer in 
my ride through the wooded flats of the Little 
Wabash, I crossed the river, and came for the 
first time into the large Prairies, which, from 
their size, almost entirely lose their beauty, and 
present nothing but an immense sea of grass. 
From hence, indeed, to St. Louis they are but 
seldom intersected by belts of wood, which are 
confined to the water courses. 

I am at a loss to account for the formation 
of those extraordinary meadows, and all the 
theories I have read upon the subject appear 
to me very unsatisfactory. The wood, wherever 

*Among the most laborious occupations of the set- 
tler is the cutting down the trees. Some of these 
are so gigantic, that the labour of chopping them 
down would be immense. He therefore cuts off the 
bark in a belt about four or five inches wide, and this 
is called girdling. The tree dies, and the year after, 
when it is dry, it is set on fire, and continues to burn 
slowly until gradually consumed. 

69 



$icture£ of ^iltnoig 



it intersects them, or runs in at points, does 
not gradually decrease in size, but remains as 
lofty as elsewhere, and gives the ground an 
appearance of having once been cleared. The 
fertility of the soil renders it still more aston- 
ishing that the wood should terminate so ab- 
ruptly as sometimes even to resemble a wall. 
Those who are of opinion that the Prairies are 
artificial, maintain that they were caused by the 
fires, which the Indians make in the autumn 
and winter. But these plains increase in mag- 
nitude as one advances west; and, after crossing 
the Mississippi, the whole country, between 
that river and Mexico, is, with very little excep- 
tion, one immense Prairie. 

I came upon the St. Louis road, near a 
house kept by a Mr. Fitch, where I got better 
fare, and a more comfortable bed, than I had 
had for some time. There is a considerable 
piece of forest around this place. In most of the 
Western States, the farmers and tavern keepers 
possess large droves of hogs, which they seldom 
or never feed, but suffer to run at large in the 
woods, where they subsist upon mast. In win- 
ter the owners generally try to collect and drive 
them up for a short time, for the purpose of 
marking them. The sows just before pigging 
do not return home, but make a bed of leaves 
and grass in the hollow of a tree, or in some 
other sheltered spot, where they bring forth 
their young, and protect them as well as they 
are able from the wolves, bears, and their still 
70 



William i^etonijam 2Mane 

more formidable enemies, the wild cats and cata- 
mounts. I have known settlers that possessed 
several hundred hogs, none of which were ever 
driven home, except when their owners wanted 
to kill them, either for home consumption or 
for sale. 

Where the forests are filled with underwood, 
it occasionally happens that some hogs make 
their escape, and, becoming quite wild, must 
be shot. Indeed, most of them follow the mode 
of life of wild animals, as far as consists in 
lying quiet all day, and feeding at night. While 
hunting in the woods, I have often come upon 
ten or twelve of them, asleep, and almost buried 
in the leaves which they had collected together, 
and made into a bed. 

In the neighbourhood of Fitch's tavern, as 
there had been an abundance of mast (by which 
word is meant beechnuts, acorns, chesnuts, etc.) 
the settlers had all congratulated themselves 
upon its being a plentiful year for their hogs; 
but one of those amazing flights of pigeons, of 
which I have already spoken, suddenly came 
into this part of the woods, and devoured not 
only all the mast that had fallen, but even that 
which remained half ripe upon the trees. Con- 
sequently numbers of the hogs were starved 
to death. 

Twelve miles after leaving Fitch's, the road 

enters the Grand Prairie. This immense sea 

of grass reaches from Lake Michigan nearly to 

the Ohio, and is about three hundred miles in 

7i 



$ictureg of SWinoig 



length. The breadth however is very irregular, 
being only twenty-four miles, where the Prairie 
is crossed by the St. Louis road. I do not 
know anything that struck me more forcibly 
than the sensation of solitude I experienced in 
crossing this, and some of the other large 
Prairies. I was perfectly alone, and could see 
nothing in any direction but sky and grass. 
Leaving the wood appeared like embarking 
alone upon the ocean, and, upon again ap- 
proaching the wood, I felt as if returning to 
land. Sometimes again, when I perceived a 
small stunted solitary tree that had been planted 
by some fortuitous circumstance, I could hardly 
help supposing it to be the mast of a vessel. 
No doubt the great stillness added very much 
to this strange illusion. Not a living thing 
could I see or hear, except the occasional rising 
of some prairie fowls, or perhaps a large hawk 
or eagle wheeling about over my head. In the 
woods I have often observed this silence and 
solitude, but it struck me more forcibly in these 
boundless meadows. 

In the middle of the Grand Prairie, a man of 
the name of Houston has fixed his habitation. 
When I was there his improvements were not 
finished, and he was particularly in want of a 
well, one he had dug before having fallen in. 
The house, which has only been built a year or 
two, is a great convenience to travellers; as 
before they were sometimes obliged to bivouac 
in the Prairie, which in winter is a very cold 
72 



William HJetonfjam 2Mane 

place to sleep in, and in summer swarms with 
horse-flies and mosquitoes. 

These horse-flies, which are larger than a 
hornet, are so exceedingly troublesome, that I 
have been informed by those who have often 
crossed the Prairie in summer, that they have 
been frequently obliged to dismount, light a 
fire, and stand in the smoke of it for hours. 
Horses can with difficulty be induced to leave 
the smoke; for they have a great dread of the 
flies, which not only cover their bodies, but get 
up into their nostrils, and would, if the poor 
animals were left by themselves, soon torment 
them to death. 

Once during the summer time, when I was 
near a marsh in the western part of the State 
of New York, I saw a horse literally covered 
with mosquitoes, which were swollen into the 
appearance of little transparent blood-vessels. 
When these were brushed off, their unfortu- 
nate victim bled almost at every pore. Were 
it not much too cruel an experiment, it would 
be curious to ascertain in how short a time 
they would kill a horse, which was tied so that 
he could not roll upon the ground. 

In the Great Prairie, as in all the others, 
there are numbers of small grey-coloured 
wolves, called "prairie wolves," which are not 
taller than a pointer dog. They are exceed- 
ingly troublesome; killing sheep, pigs and fowls. 
The common black wolves are also very numer- 
ous in the Illinois; and this obliges the settlers 
73 



$ictureg of ^ilmoig 



to shut up, every night the few sheep they have. 
There was a small patch of Indian corn just 
at Houston's door, into which several prairie 
wolves entered during the night, and kept up a 
continual barking. As soon as one begins to 
bark, another, as it were, answers; and it is 
quite curious to hear them all begin again at 
once, in every direction, when just before they 
were perfectly quiet. 

The road to St. Louis, with the exception of 
an occasional tract of forest, passes through 
nothing but Prairie. It is customary with the 
Indians and Hunters to set fire to the long- 
grass, for the purpose of compelling the game 
to take shelter in the woods, where they can 
more easily get at it. They do this in the 
autumn or winter, when the grass, which is often 
four or five feet in highth, becomes dry. Now 
the last autumn had been very wet, and on that 
account the Prairies had not all been fired, so 
that when I passed through, the grass, in many 
of them, was still unburnt. I had often heard 
of the grand spectacle they present when on 
fire, and was fortunate enough to witness it. 
I was riding between Carlysle, a small village 
on the Kaskaskia River, and St. Louis, when 
I observed a very thick smoke issuing from a 
small belt of wood, on the edge of the Prairie, 
about two miles a-head of me, and just where 
the road entered the forest. The wind was 
blowing towards me very violently, and in a 
minute or two the flames dashed out of the 
74 



William Uietonfjam 2Mane 

wood into the long grass of the Prairie. That 
on the right hand of the road had been burnt 
before, and accordingly I rode a little off in 
that direction. The flames advanced very rap- 
idly, continued to spread, and before they had 
arrived opposite to the place where I stood, 
formed a blaze of fire nearly a mile in length. 

How shall I describe the sublime spectacle 
that then presented itself? I have seen the old 
Atlantic in his fury, a thunder storm in the 
Alps, and the cataracts of Niagara; but nothing 
could be compared to what I saw at this mo- 
ment. 

The line of flame rushed through the long 
grass with tremendous violence, and a noise 
like thunder; while over the fire there hovered 
a dense cloud of smoke. The wind, which 
even previously had been high, was increased 
by the blaze which it fanned; and with such 
vehemence did it drive along the flames, that 
large masses of them appeared actually to leap 
forward and dart into the grass, several yards 
in advance of the line. It passed me like a 
whirlwind, and with a fury I shall never forget. 

The settlers on the edges of the Prairies 
sometimes experience great losses in conse- 
quence of these fires, which burn their fences, 
crops, ricks, etc.; accidents which would be 
much more frequent, were it not for the pre- 
cautions that are taken to clear away the grass, 
for some distance round the fields and houses. 

Travellers very often set fire to the grass, 

75 



pictures* of ^Tllinoi^ 



for the sake of seeing the grand spectacle it 
presents when burning; but, if detected, are 
liable to a fine, and must pay for all the damage 
they may occasion. 

Persons in wagons and on foot would some- 
times, when crossing the Prairies, be destroyed, 
if, when they saw the fire advancing towards 
them, they were not to take the precaution of 
also setting fire to the grass, and retreating 
upon the burnt spot, which of course the orig- 
inal fire can never reach for want of fuel. 

During the last war between Great Britain 
and the United States, a detachment of the 
American army passed near the upper end of 
the Grand Prairie, where the hostile Indians lay 
in ambush. When the troops had entered a 
small thick wood, the Indians set fire to the 
grass around it in several places, and it was 
with the greatest difficulty, and by also firing 
the grass, and retreating to the spot cleared, 
that the detachment escaped destruction. 

I afterwards saw several Prairies on fire, but 
was not within two or three miles of them. 
They produce a beautiful effect during the 
night, the clouds immediately over them re- 
flecting the light, and appearing almost on fire 
themselves. When, during a dark night, there 
are two or three of these meadows on fire at 
a time, the effect is of course very much height- 
ened; and the whole heavens are then tinged 
with a deep and sullen red. 

I have heard the Hunters, in the state of Mis- 
76 



William |£etonf>am 25Iane 

souri, describe the grand spectacle offered to 
their view, when the Indians, every autumn or 
winter, set fire to the large Prairies that extend 
almost to Mexico. Here the flames, having 
nothing to stop their fury, blaze on for many 
days and nights together, and are only checked 
at last, either by a heavy fall of rain, or by the 
blowing of the wind in an exactly contrary di- 
rection. 

They who live near, or on the Prairies, do 
not consider these conflagrations prejudicial, 
except when some of their enclosures are 
damaged; for the fire, besides burning up the 
long dry grass, which would in some measure 
impede the growth of that of the following 
year, destroys myriads of noxious reptiles and 
insects, which deposit their eggs in the luxuri- 
ant vegetation, and which, but for this check, 
would become extremely numerous and trouble- 
some. 

I was always forcibly struck by the melan- 
choly appearance of a burnt Prairie. As far 
as the eye could reach, nothing was to be seen 
but one uniform black surface, looking like a 
vast plain of charcoal. Here and there, by the 
roadside, were the bones of some horses or cat- 
tle, which had died in passing through, or the 
horns of some deer which had been killed. 
These, bleached by the alternate action of fire 
and rain, formed, by their extraordinary white- 
ness, a most remarkable contrast to the black 
burnt ground on which they lay. 
77 



f&ctureg of gemote 



In passing a small belt of wood near a water- 
course, I met the mail, that is to say, a man on 
horseback, who drove before him another horse, 
on which were fastened the leathern bags con- 
taining the letters. These bags were very 
large, and being packed upon a high wooden 
saddle, made a curious appearance. When I 
first saw the horse coming round a turn in the 
road, I thought some animal was fixed upon its 
back. It is in this way that the mail is carried 
twice a week from Kentucky to Vincennes, 
and from Vincennes to St. Louis. 

Eight miles before coming to the Mississippi 
I passed a sudden declivity, and found myself 
upon a large plain, extending to the river, and 
called the ' 'American Bottom. ' ' It is probably 
the richest tract of land in the whole of the 
United States, and is about 250 miles in length, 
with a breadth of from two to seven miles. 

The whole soil, composed of a deep black 
mould, has been deposited by the river, which 
has shifted its course to the foot of the high 
land, on which the town of St. Louis is situated. 

This fertile district is rendered almost unin- 
habitable by its unhealthiness, and will require 
a great deal of draining before many persons 
will settle upon it. 

In some of the more healthy spots near the 
high land, by which it is bordered, a few French 
people have settled, who, it is universally re- 
marked, are by no means so liable to be attacked 
by fevers, as the English or Americans. This 
78 



William |!etont)am 25iane 



is attributed to their very different, and much 
more temperate, mode of living. Indeed I am 
persuaded, that there are no people on the face 
of the earth, who consume so much animal food 
as the Anglo-Americans; for at breakfast, din- 
ner, and supper, hot meat is always eaten, even 
by the poorest class. During the winter, per- 
haps, this high living may not be unwholesome; 
but, even during the burning months of summer 
and autumn, they continue to eat the same im- 
mense quantity of meat and grease, which last 
article is a favorite in their cookery. 

The fertility of the "American Bottom" is 
truly astonishing, and the stalks of Indian corn 
which I saw standing might have almost tended 
to remove one's doubts, as to the highth of 
Jack's wonderful Bean. 

After crossing this fine tract of country, and 
passing through a very small belt of wood, I 
arrived to my great satisfaction upon the bank 
of the celebrated Mississippi,which at St. Louis 
is about one mile in breadth, with a very power- 
ful and rapid current. 

* * * * * * *4 

St. Louis is a small town, containing between 
two and three thousand inhabitants. It was 
founded by the French, at the time when Loui- 
siana, of which the present state of the Missouri 
forms a part, belonged to that nation. It in- 

4 The portion we omit consists of a discussion of 
the geography of the Mississippi Valley. 
79 



$ittutt$ of SWinoije? 



creased in size very rapidly after it came into the 
hands of the Americans; and at one time was 
the great emporium of all the fur-trade with the 
Indians. But it has of late years declined both 
in prosperity and population, partly owing to 
the dreadful sickness, and partly to the rival- 
ship of the villages which are springing up on 
the banks of the Missouri and upper Mississippi, 
and which now participate in the fur-trade with 
the Indians. 

When I was there, it contained one thousand 
less inhabitants, than it did at the close of the 
last war between Great Britain and the United 
States. — There are still among its population 
many French, who continue to speak their old 
language, and in some degree keep up the 
manners of their native country. 

Governor Clarke, the enterprising companion 
of Captain Lewis, has at St. Louis a small but 
well arranged Museum, which contains a great 
number of Indian curiosities, and which he 
very kindly opens to all strangers. 

To show how soon literary knowledge spreads 
itself in America, I will here mention that sev- 
eral gentlemen of St. Louis and its vicinity, with 
whom I became acquainted, had not only read 
all the first Waverly novels, but even the 
last one, the Fortunes of Nigel, which had only 
been published a short time before I left Eng- 
land. One of the gentlemen informed me, that 
he received copies of these novels by mail, 
about two months after their publication in 
80 



William i^etonftam 25Iane 

America, and probably within fourteen or six- 
teen weeks of their first appearance in England. 
He said, that this was also the case with most 
popular works. O'Meara's account of Napo- 
leon, was read by almost every one; and as all 
the newspapers contained copious extracts from 
it, everybody could read with feelings of just 
indignation, the vexations imposed on the splen- 
did despot, by his mean-spirited governor. 



81 



Part III 

A Journey up the 

Illinois River in 1821 



3IUinofss mm in 1821 

[From Henry R. Schoolcraft: Travels in the Central 
Portions of the Mississippi Valley.] 



AUGUST 5th. We entered the Illinois 
river at an early hour. The point of con- 
fluence is twenty-five miles above the 
junction of the Missouri. It presents to the 
eye a smooth and sluggish current, bordered on 
each side by an exuberant growth of aquatic 
plants, which, in some places, reach nearly 
across the channel. We soon found the water 
tepid and unpalatable, and oftentimes filled with 
decomposed vegetation to a degree that was 
quite offensive. There is perhaps no stream in 
America whose current offers so little resis- 
tance in the ascent. The west side of the river 
is that which has been appropriated by govern- 
ment as a part of the bounty lands for the late 
army. Both banks are bordered by a dense 
forest of cottonwood, sycamore, and other spe- 
cies common to the best western bottom-lands. 
Of the fertility of the soil, no person of the least 
observation can for a moment doubt; but at the 
same time, the insalubrity of the climate, par- 
ticularly during the summer season, must be 
considered as presenting a formidable, impedi- 
ment to its speedy settlement. 
85 



pctureg of SWinote 



It was a source of delight to Dr. Johnson, 
in his journey to the Hebrides, to behold a 
full-grown tree; we have felt an equal degree 
of pleasure along this stream in finding a house: 
and the appearance of the inhabitants has cor- 
responded with the opinion before expressed 
of the unhealthiness of the country. Pale and 
emaciated countenances; females shivering 
with ague, or burning with intermittent fever, 
unable to minister to their children; and some- 
times, every member of a numerous family 
suffering from the prevalent malady at the same 
time, have been among the more common 
scenes which we have beheld along the lower 
parts of this otherwise attractive stream. A 
friend residing in that part of the country which 
is watered by the Sangamo, a district almost 
proverbial for its fertility, and which is fast 
rising into importance, writes: — "In this coun- 
try, life is at least fifty per cent below par in 
the months of August and September. I have 
often thought that I ran as great a risk every 
season which I spend here as I would in an 
ordinary battle. I really believe it seldom hap- 
pens that a greater proportion of an army falls 
victims to the sword during a campaign, than 
there has of the inhabitants of Illinois to disease, 
during a season that I have been here." That 
time and cultivation will remove the causes of 
unhealthiness, is a prevalent opinion; that they 
will effect any visible melioration within a short 
period, is improbable. 

86 



i^enrp ftotoe £ri>oolcraft 

August 6th. We left the plantation where 
we had encamped at a very early hour; and 
favoured by the sluggishness of the stream, 
ascended forty or forty- five miles. Most of 
this day's journey was very agreeable. The 
weather, though fair, was not hot, and the 
appearance of the country was often novel 
and striking in the disposition of the rocks and 
woods. We moved upon so calm and smooth 
a surface, that sometimes it became a subject 
of debate whether there was any apparent cur- 
rent. Our progress was less incommoded by 
aquatic grasses; and the exuberance of vege- 
tation on shore, frequently had the finest effect, 
contrasted with prominent points of calcareous 
rocks. Not unfrequently, springs of clear 
water issue from these cliffs, which, as that 
of the river was absolutely bad, we were con- 
stantly on the alert to discover. We observed 
the influx of several small and unimportant 
streams. Settlements are "few and far be- 
tween." The most conspicuous are those sit- 
uated on Mauvaisterre creek, one of which is 
near the eligible and picturesque prairie of 
Mauvaisterre. 

This airy site appears to have been a favour- 
ite spot for encamping,from the earliest period, 
and was taken notice of in the time of Charle- 
voix. A ridge of alluvial earth here forms a 
prominent shore, for some distance, and admits 
of a convenient landing. The quality of the 
soil, as the name denotes, is poor; but this term 
87 



$icture£ of 3TOnoi£ 



is to be understood only in a comparative 
sense. In a country where the lands are so 
generally fertile, the slightest appearances of 
aridity are seized upon to mark a positive dis- 
tinction. But in the case before us, though the 
soil appears to be sandy and pervious, we are 
told it produces excellent crops of Indian corn 
and potatoes. 

We here met a trader's boat, on a return voy- 
age from the settlements on the Sangamo. The 
population on that river, we were informed, has 
received very considerable accessions from the 
course of emigration, within the last few years. 
The lands are held in high estimation, and pro- 
duce exceedingly without manure. The com- 
mon price of corn, in the autumn, is twelve and 
a half cents per bushel. During a particular 
season, the crops in that settlement were injured 
by frost as early as the 20th of September. 
This, as it was an uncommon occurrence, pro- 
duced an uncommon rise in the price of that 
article, which was sold at twenty- five cents. 
This low price of grain, in concurrence with 
the luxuriance of the native pasturage in the 
woods and prairies, renders it a district very 
favourable for grazing. But the want of a good 
market, constant in its demand, and conveni- 
ent of access, appears, at present, to oppose the 
most serious obstacle to the prosperity of the 
farming and mercantile interest in this 
quarter. Should the contemplated canal at 
Chicago be constructed, we have little doubt 
88 



i^enrp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

but the trade of this part of the state of Illinois 
will pass through that channel. The produce 
of the country is of a description that ought to 
find its way to a northern market; and that, 
too, without passing through a tropical climate. 
Cattle and hogs may be driven to Chicago, at 
the present moment, with nearly the same ex- 
pence that they can to St. Louis, and if slaugh- 
tered and packed at the former place, would 
remain in better preservation than if carried out 
at the mouths of the Mississippi. Even in the 
present state of things, we are inclined to think, 
that the farmers and merchants of this part of 
Illinois are prepared to compete with those of 
Michigan and Ohio, in the supply of the Lake 
posts. 

August yth. Above Mauvaisterre the Illi- 
nois receives the Amequon, or Spoon river, and 
the Sangamo, — two of the largest tributaries 
which enter below the lake of Peoria. Spoon 
river drains a considerable portion of the mili- 
tary tract. The lands near its mouth, com- 
mencing a short distance below, and extending 
several miles above, are beautifully elevated. 
The Sangamo enters the Illinois by several 
channels. The point of confluence is one hun- 
dred and thirty miles above its mouth. The 
lands here are marshy and subject to periodi- 
cal inundations. 

Finding nothing to detain us along this part 
of the Illinois, we made all possible speed on 
our way, and at six o'clock in the evening 
89 



$icture£ of STOnoig 



encamped on a moist shore, among noxious 
weeds — the lowness of the banks, and the wide 
margin of rushes, and broad-leaved water 
plants, rendering it difficult to approach the land, 
and after we had effected a landing, to find a 
spot sufficiently dry to spread our blankets on. 
This furnished an additional motive for abridg- 
ing our stay as much as possible, and we 
embarked on the following morning, as soon as 
the dawning day permitted our canoemen to 
descry the proper channel. This is a precau- 
tion that occasional visitors will do well to 
attend to, in ascending this stream as the num- 
ber of false channels, or lagunes, is calculated 
to divert, and mislead him. Notwithstanding 
the wariness of our steersman on this point, 
we had not proceeded many miles, when we 
entered one of these lagunes, and did not per- 
ceive our error until we began to approach its 
termination. It was now necessary to turn 
about, and we spent two hours in retracing our 
way. Mistakes of this kind may be righted, 
but the time is irrecoverably lost. With all 
our exertions, we made but a poor day's jour- 
ney — not more than thirty miles, by the most 
favourable computation, and we encamped at 
a late hour in the evening, on the eastern shore. 
The spot selected was an open elevation, check- 
ered with a few scattered oaks, and would have 
well repaid the inquietudes of the preceding 
night, had not the various insects which abound 
along these humid shores, annoyed us inces- 
90 



i^enrp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

santly. Against this annoyance, the common 
mosqueto bar, is not complete protection; for 
there are numerous hard-shelled insects, which 
will penetrate the foldings of a bed, and spread 
themselves over all parts of the covering, so 
that it is not uncommon on first awaking in the 
morning, to behold within very circumscribed 
limits, a collection of these insects that would 
delight an entomologist. 

August 9 th. About nine o'clock in the 
morning we came to a part of the river, which 
was covered for several hundred yards with a 
scum or froth of the most intense green color, 
and emitting a nauseous exhalation, that was 
almost insupportable. We were compelled to 
pass through it. The fine green color of this 
somewhat compacted scum, resembling that of 
verdigris, led us at the moment to conjecture, 
that it might derive this character from some 
mineral spring or vein, in the bed of the river, but 
we had reason afterward to reject this opinion. 
I directed one of the canoemen to collect a 
bottle of this mother miasmata, for preserva- 
tion, but its fermenting nature baffled repeated 
attempts to keep it corked. We had daily seen 
instances of the powerful tendency of these 
waters to facilitate the decomposition of float- 
ing vegetation, but had never before observed 
any in so matured and complete a state of pu- 
trefaction. It might certainly justify an observ- 
er, less given to fiction than were the ancient 
poets, to people this stream with the Hydra. 
9i 



$icture£ of STOnoig 



While we were detained a few moments by 
this appearance, a deer was observed on shore, 
but we were not successful in the efforts made 
to kill him. This animal is still abundant in 
this very thinly settled part of the country, and 
may often be surprised along shore, early in the 
morning, and in the evening. From this, we 
proceeded upon a calm surface, where nature 
presented her usual aspects. 

Towards noon the day became oppressively 
hot, and our men evinced unusual fatigue. 
About one o'clock we entered the fine lake of 
Peoria, and put ashore at Fort Clark. 

This name, like that of some other places 
we have passed, where the military has given 
way to agricultural occupancy, is a misnomer. 
The fort, which formerly stood here, was erected 
by the American troops in 1 8 13. It consisted 
of double rows of squared timber, filled in 
with stones and earth, and its outlines are thus 
preserved. It was abandoned near the close 
of the war, and soon after burned by the 
Indians 5 . The site of this work, being at the 
foot of the lake of Peoria, is uncommonly pic- 
turesque; and the lands, though somewhat 
arenaceous near the fort, are, in general, not 
less fertile than beautiful. Situated at a point 

6 The burning of Fort Clark by the Indians is said 
by Gurdon Hubbard to have occurred in the autumn 
of 18 1 8. For his account of it see the Lakeside Clas- 
sics for 191 1 (Autobiography of Gurdon Saltotistall 
Hubbard), p. 48. 

92 



^cittp fiotoc Schoolcraft 

which is nearly equidistant from the sources 
and the mouth of the Illinois, where the splen- 
did prairies of the upper part unite with 
the heavy forests of the lower, and enjoying 
such an excellent communication with the Mis- 
sissippi, a town at this place must, we should 
suppose, command considerable advantages. 
Indeed it is rather surprising, that the growth 
of the new village which has been located here 
since the abandonment of La Ville de Maillet, 
has not already attained a large size. The 
present settlers, like those of the ancient vil- 
lage, chiefly consist of Frenchmen, who have 
had a footing here ever since the days of La 
Salle. Forts Creve-coeur and St. Louis, which 
at once recall the enterprise and misfortunes 
of this intrepid discoverer, were situated on the 
borders of this lake, within a few miles of the 
present village of Peoria. The distance of this 
village from the mouth of the Illinois, by the 
shortest computation, is 180 miles, and by 
another 264 miles. Truth, probably lies in a 
mean. 

The reading of books and looking at maps, 
make but a fugitive impression on the mind, 
compared to the ocular view and examination 
of a country. This does not arise, perhaps, so 
much from errors in the published descriptions, 
as from their stopping short of the desired 
point. To enumerate the advantages of a 
country, and not to state, at the same time, its 
disadvantages, is certainly inconsistent with 
93 



pctureg of STOnoig 



truth and impartiality. Besides our opinions 
and conclusions, the pleasure or disgust which 
we experience in visiting a new country, arises, 
in a great measure, from minute features, that 
are too often omitted in descriptions, or can- 
not be delineated on maps. These suggestions 
have been verified in the course of our journey 
up the Illinois; — we mean that part of it which 
lies below the lake of Peoria: a country that 
has hitherto been considered as the region of 
warmth and fertility, and this is, undoubtedly, 
in the main, a just character of it. But it can- 
not be received unmixed or unqualified. There 
are considerable portions which are low and 
swampy, and also some that are decidedly bar- 
ren; and it should be recollected, that of those 
parts which possess an arable soil, there is 
always a portion that wants running brooks, 
and a portion which is deficient in forest timber. 
To this it must be added, that there are two 
months of the year when the inhabitants are 
exposed to fevers and agues, which render life 
irksome. We have thought these remarks prop- 
er to qualify our commendations of this 
favoured section of country, and to contribute 
our mite in checking the too sanguine spirit of 
precipitate emigration. 
"Ah! little thought I of the blasting wind, 

The thirst, or pinching hunger that I find! 

Bethink thee, Hassan; where shall thirst assuage, 

When fails this cruise, his unrelenting rage? 

Soon shall this scrip its precious load resign; 

Then what but tears and hunger shall be thine?" 

94 



i^cntp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

But we wish, at the same time, to draw a line 
of distinction between the lower and the upper 
parts of this stream, the latter of which, we 
mean the country lying between Fort Clark and 
Chicago, presents to the eye so pleasing and 
beautiful a succession of forest and prairie, so 
handsomely diversified in its surface, and in 
general, so finely watered and so delightfully 
elevated, that scarcely anything need be stated 
in abatement of its superlative beauty and exu- 
berant fertility. 

Persons who explore the Illinois at different 
seasons and by different routes, may, however, 
form contradictory opinions respecting some of 
its peculiar features, and draw very different 
conclusions of its advantages and capabilities 
— so much depends on first impressions. We 
entered the mouth of the Illinois at the most 
sultry and sickly season of the year, when its 
waters were foul and unpalatable, when its 
inhabitants were prostrated with debilitating 
fevers, and when we were ourselves forced to 
yield to the prevailing malady. Conclusions, 
drawn under such circumstances, are, perhaps, 
less calculated to mislead, than those resulting 
from more auspicious combinations. But we 
should bear it in mind, that there can be no 
country without its disadvantages ; and that a 
picture without shadows cannot be a just and 
faithful representation of nature. 

The width of the Illinois, at its entrance into 
the Mississippi, is generally estimated to be 
95 



$icture£ of SWmoig 



half a mile, but the mist which prevailed at the 
early hour at which we entered it, prevented 
our forming an opinion on this subject. Above 
that point, it is perhaps generally three hundred 
yards across, until we reach Peoria lake, where 
it has an irregular expansion, whose utmost 
width is comprehended within about two miles. 
During all this distance it admits of navigation, 
in the lowest stages of water, for vessels of 
fifty or sixty tons burden. The interruption to 
navigation from frost, is commonly less than 
four months. The water moves sluggishly, 
and, indeed, has more resemblance to a canal 
than to a stream. The current has been esti- 
mated to have a velocity of something like one 
mile per hour, but even this is questionable. Its 
greatest rise by freshets is about fifteen feet. 
At these times its banks are partially covered 
with water, from one to three or four miles 
back. Of the surface thus inundated, the 
lagunes only are permanent, if we except some 
inconsiderable portions, near the mouth of the 
Sangamo river, and below that point. The 
aquatic plants which are now so plenteous will 
probably diminish when the river comes to be 
frequently navigated by large vessels, and its 
banks yield to cultivation and improvement. 
For notwithstanding the disadvantages which 
we have mentioned, the lands must settle. 
They are too fertile to be long neglected with 
our increasing population; and besides, there 
are many sites whose local position and fine ele- 
96 



i^enrp Hotoe Schoolcraft 

vation, must, we should suppose, exempt them 
from unhealthiness. The present settlements, 
we speak of those on the immediate banks of 
the river, are very thin, scarcely deserving the 
name. If the definition of Dr. Johnson be 
applied here, (and it is the only definition with 
which we are acquainted), that the character- 
istic feature of a house, is the having of one 
story over another, there is not, probably, a 
house on the banks of the Illinois. Of huts, or 
"dwellings with only one floor," there is a 
limited number. They are generally located 
near some spring, and the fields in cultivation 
are situated at such a distance back, as to be 
invisible from the river. This practice, which 
results from the fear of inundation, leaves the 
banks of the stream, with all their rank vegeta- 
tion, a picturesque wildness. 

The principal objects of culture, are Indian 
corn and potatoes. The inhabitants do not 
appear to be sensible of the advantages of gar- 
dens. Pasturage for cattle is spontaneous, and 
makes the articles beef and pork comparatively 
cheap. The woods, in many places, afford an 
abundance of wild honey. Thus the food of 
chief necessity is easily procured, and if to have 
plenty of victuals be to live well, certainly those 
inhabitants who have any degree of industry, 
need not complain; for there are probably 
few countries in the world where farmers 
obtain bread and butcher's meat with so little 
labour. 

97 



$icture£ of ^llinote 



Of game and fish, we should judge, from a 
hasty visit, there is no scarcity, and some vari- 
ety. The Virginia deer is common to the forests 
and prairies of this stream, in its entire length; 
and it is not uncommon on approaching a habi- 
tation, to see a haunch of venison suspended 
against the side of the house, or hanging upon 
a contiguous tree. We found the duck and 
mallard, black duck, teal, and brant, in great 
numbers upon all parts of this stream. It is 
also well stored with the cat and buffalo fish, 
and the gar, besides some other species, which 
are more esteemed. The first-mentioned spe- 
cies are not generally eaten in the summer 
months. But when taken among other fish, are 
sometime given as food to hogs, who are 
known to devour them. This latter observation, 
corresponds with another still more remark- 
able, that has been made at Michilimackinac, 
and at the Sault of St. Mary, where, during 
certain seasons of scarcity, the domestic cow 
has been known occasionally to feed upon fish, 
and even evinced a greediness in devouring 
them. 

Among the lesser land animals and birds, 
which frequent the banks of the Illinois, the 
turkey, prairie hen, and hare, may be mentioned. 
The otter, muskrat, and racoon, are also 
still taken by the Indians, and contribute in a 
great measure to their support, — the skins 
being sold to the traders and the flesh taken as 
food. The beaver, which has so greatly dimin- 
98 



ijjenrp ftotoe £tl>oolcraft 

ished in all parts of America within a few 
years, is now rarely found in this stream, or its 
tributaries. We shall here mention a curious 
fact respecting the social habits of this animal, 
which is derived from a respectable source. 
On one of the lesser streams which are dis- 
charged into Hudson's Bay, a beaver family 
exists that has for many years enjoyed the 
protection of the Governor of that province, 
who pays the natives an annual stipend for spar- 
ing their lives. The circumstances which led 
to this curious arrangement are as follows: — 
The dam constructed by these animals contains 
sufficient water to float the canoes of the tra- 
ders through a shallow and difficult part of the 
stream, which they could not otherwise navi- 
gate. This dam is broken down annually, and 
the beavers no sooner perceive the traders gone, 
than they commence repairing it. Habit has 
at length given this little community so much 
confidence, that although naturally very shy, 
they are now frequently seen during the day, 
and appear to evince an instinctive knowledge 
of the benefits they thus confer upon man; — 
and which exempt them from the exterminating 
war waged against the rest of their species. 

We resumed our journey towards evening. 
The sun has now mitigated its fierceness. The 
lake was calm, the air soft, and nothing but 
the measured strokes of the paddles, accom- 
panied with the ever cheerful chanting of our 
men, interrupted the tranquillity which pre- 
99 



$icture£ of ^ilinoig 



vailed. Our way now lay through the beauti- 
ful lake of Peoria, whose clear surface reflected 
its sylvan banks with two-fold beauty. This 
sheet of water is merely an expansion of the 
river, about twenty miles long, and from half 
a mile to two miles in breadth. It appears to 
have been formed by the river's passing over a 
tabular surface of secondary rocks, and is not 
an uncommon feature in western streams. 
The Mississippi has several of these river-lakes, 
but we know of nothing analogous in the rivers 
east of the Alleghanies, unless Tappan be con- 
sidered in this light. 

The waters ot this lake are beautifully clear, 
and as they are well stocked with fish, of the 
kinds before mentioned, they afford the natives 
a fine theater for exercising their skill in throw- 
ing the spear; an exercise, in which, standing 
on the gunwales of their canoes, they exhibit 
great dexterity, and show off their slender forms 
to much advantage. We witnessed this sport 
at several points in the lake, as we passed along, 
and we frequently saw the fish darting through 
the pellucid water beneath us. Towards the 
upper part of the lake, its shores are commonly 
lined with rushes, and we collected here a num- 
ber of uniones, of a pretty large size. 

As darkness approached, a mist began to rise 
upon the water, and we soon found ourselves 
enveloped by so dense a vapor, that it became 
impossible to discern the proper course. After 
being exposed on the lake for several hours, in 
ioo 



Ifenrp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

this state of uncertainty, we made the western 
shore, at a late hour at night. In consequence 
of this circumstance we remained in our camp 
on the following morning until seven o'clock. 
We were happy to perceive that our exertions 
of the preceding night had not been misdi- 
rected; and on going four or five miles, we 
passed out of the lake. The river maintains 
about the same width here which it has below, 
but its banks are less shaded with trees, and 
often covered exclusively with native grasses. 
This alternation of wood and plain, whose limits 
are often defined with surprising accuracy, 
imposes a very pleasing aspect upon the 
scenery, and not unfrequently makes the im- 
pression of a country that has once been in cul- 
tivation. Indeed, it requires nothing but the 
ruins of houses, roads, and fences to complete 
the illusion, and to transform these pastoral 
wilds into a deserted Tempe. Both sides of 
the river are alluvial, but, though rocky strata 
are not observable, the common appearance of 
loose sand in its bed, indicates the existence of 
a sandstone formation. The detached blocks 
of primitive formation, which are scattered 
over the surface of the soil, remain to attest 
physical changes, of which more has been writ- 
ten than proved. The mineralogy of the 
country is totally uninteresting. Of the many 
species which are enumerated in modern sys- 
tems, there is scarcely one, either rare or useful, 
for which we can here name a locality. Horn- 
101 



pctureg of SWinote 



stone, often in the form of arrow heads, and 
sometimes variegated in its colours, is common 
upon the prairies. Perhaps there are some 
varieties of this mineral, which those who are 
fond of multiplying distinctions would denomi- 
nate jasper. A country that is exclusively 
alluvial, is, commonly, barren of minerals. 
Though gold and platina are found in the allu- 
vial formations of Choco, and diamonds in those 
of Brazil, there are, we believe, neither gold 
nor diamonds here. Its wealth consists in the 
fertilizing properties of its soil, and it is still, 
perhaps, a problem in political economy, which 
remains to be solved, whether the treasures, 
which are acquired by the plough, are not 
more conducive to the happiness and prosper- 
ity of nations, than those which are extracted, 
with chymic arts, from the flinty interior of mica 
slates and granites. 

We pursued our voyage without interruption 
from rapids, and without detention from settle- 
ments. There is not a white habitation between 
Fort Clark and Chicago, nor would the traveller 
be led to presume, from present appearances, 
that the French had built forts and erected 
chapels in this region of country more than a 
hundred years ago. It is not certain where 
Fort Cr&ve-coeur stood, though it appears prob- 
able it was near the lower part of Peoria lake. 
But the knowledge that we are passing through 
scenes which were first made known by the 
enterprise of Joliet and La Salle, and which 
102 



iljemrp Utotoe Jbcfjoolcraft 

long continued to be the theater where the 
zealous disciples of Loyola exerted their efforts 
to christianize the native tribes, and sacrificed 
their lives in this pious attempt, is a circum- 
stance calculated to excite our regret for intre- 
pidity which wrought no lasting good, and for 
missionary labour of which no trace remains. 
"To abstract the mind from all local emotion," 
says an eminent British tourist, "would be im- 
possible, if it were endeavoured, and would be 
foolish if it were possible. Whatever with- 
draws us from the power of our senses; what- 
ever makes the past, the distant, or the future 
predominate over the present, advances us in 
the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me 
and from my friends be such frigid philosophy 
as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved 
over any ground that has been dignified by 
wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little 
to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain 
force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose 
piety would not grow warmer among the ruins 
of Iona." 

The evening was fast approaching when we 
came to a Pottowattomie village, on the west 
shore. As it was usual on these occasions to 
display our ensign, a considerable bustle was 
manifest in their camp — men, women, and 
children, running to and fro, in a confused man- 
ner, and long before we reached shore, the 
collected population of the village was at the 
water's side to greet us on landing — 
103 



$ictureg of SWrnote 



"And naked youths, and painted chiefs admire 
Our speech, our colour, and our strange attire." 

A few words gave them to understand, that 
we were on our way to attend the treaty at 
Chicago, and they informed us that they were 
on the point of starting for the same place. 
After the customary ceremonies and presents, 
we visited several of their lodges, and found 
none of them destitute of some articles of 
American or European manufacture, as kettles, 
knives, axes, etc. The men of this tribe are 
distinguished for their tall, erect, and manly 
stature, and we think it may be remarked, that 
beards are more common to them than to most 
of our northern tribes. We observed one aged 
person, in particular, whose long descending 
gray beard would not disgrace a Nazarite. 

From this place, we went on about six miles, 
and encamped on a high prairie bank, where 
we spread our beds upon the ripe grass. On 
the following morning, we embarked at five 
o'clock, a heavy mist and cool air prevailing 
on the river. On going a few miles, we took 
a false channel leading into a pond, in extricat- 
ing ourselves from which we spent an hour and 
a half. This is an occurrence which it requires 
unremitting attention to avoid. The mist was 
now dispelled, and we pursued our course under 
favour of a bright sky and transparent atmos- 
phere. On either shore, we passed a succession 
of rural scenes, "ever pleasing, ever new." At 
two o'clock, we reached the mouth of the Ver- 
104 



i^cnrp iHotoe £cl)ooIcraft 

million, a fine clear stream, entering on the left 
bank. This point is estimated to be equidis- 
tant between Chicago and Fort Clark, it being 
ninety miles either way. The rapids commence 
half a mile above, which makes it evident that 
the Illinois is greatly diminished in size above 
the junction of the Vermillion. The water at 
once becomes shallow, and the rock, which is 
a sandstone, presents itself first in broken 
masses, and soon after flooring the bed of the 
river. When our canoe would no longer float 
without rubbing against the rocks, we got out 
and made a short portage, the empty canoe 
being still guided along by men walking in the 
stream on each side. When we again em- 
barked, we could, however, go but a very short 
distance. Another portage was necessary. 

In short, we could no longer proceed in our 
water craft. Nothing but a series of rapids 
appeared above as far as we could explore. 
The water was scarcely eight or ten inches 
deep in any place, and often less than four. 
With great exertions, we had proceeded two 
or three miles above the Vermillion, and about 
4 o'clock, we encamped near a remarkable iso- 
lated hill, called by French voyageurs LeRo- 
cher, and Rock Fort. 

This is an elevated cliff on the left bank of 
the Illinois, consisting of parallel layers of white 
sandstone. It is not less than two hundred and 
fifty feet high, perpendicular on three sides, and 
washed at its base by the river. On the fourth 
105 



^ictureg of ^Ilinoig 



side it is connected with the adjacent range 
of hills by a narrow peninsular ledge, which 
can only be ascended by a precipitous, wind- 
ing path. The summit of this rock is level and 
contains about three-fourths of an acre. It is 
covered with a soil of several feet in depth, 
bearing a growth of young trees. Strong and 
almost inacccessible by nature, this natural 
battlement has been still further fortified by 
the Indians, and many years ago was the scene 
of a desperate conflict between the Pottowat- 
tomies, and one band of the Illinois Indians. 
The latter fled to this place for refuge from the 
fury of their enemies. The post could not be 
carried by assault, and tradition says that the 
besiegers finally succeeded, after many repul- 
ses, by cutting off the supply of water. To 
procure this article the besieged let down ves- 
sels attached to ropes of bark, from a part of 
the precipice which overhangs the river, but 
their enemies succeeded in cutting off these 
ropes as often as they were let down. The 
consequence was a surrender, which was fol- 
lowed by a total extirpation of the band. 

On gaining the top of this rock we found a 
regular entrenchment, corresponding to the 
edge of the precipice, and within this other 
excavations, which, from the thick growth of 
brush and trees, could not be satisfactorily 
examined. The labour of many hands was man- 
ifest, and a degree of industry which the Indi- 
ans have not usually bestowed upon works 
1 06 



of defence. We found upon this elevation brok- 
en muscle shells, fragments of antique pottery, 
and stones which had been subjected to the 
action of heat resembling certain lavas. 

From this elevated spot an extensive and 
diversified view of prairie scenery is presented, 
and the objects about our encampment ap- 
peared reduced to a diminutive size. 

"How fearful 
And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eye so low! 
The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air 
Show scarce so gross as beetles." 

The soil which results from the gradual dis- 
integration of this rock, is nearly a pure sand. 
On descending we found the prickly pear (cac- 
tus) covering a considerable portion of this soil, 
where scarcely any other plant is hardy enough 
to vegetate. 

Of the height of this cliff, the estimate which 
we have given is merely conjectural. The effect 
upon the observer is striking and imposing. 
But we are disposed to think the effect of lofti- 
ness produced by objects of this nature is not 
so much the result of the actual, as of the com- 
parative height. We have often felt, as we have 
on the present occasion, an impression of gran- 
deur produced by a solitary precipice two or 
three hundred feet high, rising abruptly above 
a flat alluvial country or lake, more striking 
and imposing than at other times in traversing 
a region more elevated, and where "Alps on 

107 



$ictureg of SWinoig 



Alps arise." In the latter case, the eye con- 
stantly measures one elevation by another; in 
the former we have no standard of this kind, 
and hence undoubtedly overrate. Philosophi- 
cally considered, the height of prominent points 
of a country is estimated above the level of 
the nearest sea. But the effect produced on 
the eye or the imagination begins to be felt 
only from that part of a mountain where it 
first makes a striking angle with the plain. 
Our view of this modern Oxus is taken from a 
position on the opposite side of the river, di- 
rectly in front of the most precipitous face of 
the rock. 

Finding the navigation so difficult, we deter- 
mined to relinquish the design of proceeding 
any farther by water, and to await the arrival of 
horses from Chicago, which had been ordered 
to meet us near this place on the ioth. A 
man was sent by land to Reddick's Deposite. 
He returned at a seasonable hour on the fol- 
lowing day, having found the horses in waiting. 
Having made the necessary arrangements for 
conveying our baggage by land, and leaving 
our canoemen in charge, we mounted our horses 
at ten o'clock in the morning, and pursued the 
journey with renovated spirits. It was our 
good fortune to be guided by a chief of the Pot- 
towattomies of the Plains, perfectly acquainted 
with the route, who had passed it times innum- 
erable, who knew every choice spot for encamp- 
ing, and to whom we could safely confide these 
1 08 



i^enrp iSotoe Schoolcraft 

arrangements. In passing through this once 
populous country, Peerish, our trusty guide, 
pointed out to us the ancient sites of several 
Indian villages, one of which was situated on 
the top of a romantic tabular elevation called 
the Buffalo Rock, and another, located on the 
plain, had been completely encompassed by a 
ditch and wall, the remains of which are still 
conspicuous, and the whole extent of the lines 
is easily traced. This, he informed us, was 
the last stand made by the Kaskaskias before 
they retreated to the Rock Fort. These curi- 
ous landmarks are calculated to recall an epoch 
in the history of the Indian tribes, when they 
were powerful in point of numbers, — when the 
bow and arrow were adequate to their subsis- 
tence, and when they cherished with pride the 
rude arts, the customs, and the simple manners 
of their forefathers,undismayed by the superior 
attainments of Europeans, and uncontaminated 
by the evils resulting from the introduction of 
ardent spirits and other civilized vices; an 
epoch which affords a very melancholy con- 
trast with their present enfeebled and depop- 
ulated condition. Nothing strikes the observer, 
in riding over these plains, with more force 
than the paucity of the present Indian popula- 
tion, where the old missionaries represent them 
to have existed in "hordes innumerable." And 
we have been sometimes tempted to conclude 
that these zealous fathers, influenced by secu- 
lar considerations, may have been induced to 
109 



$icture£ of ^ilhtoig 



exaggerate the numbers, or have taken little 
pains to be satisfied of the truth: "To count, " 
says the author of the Rambler, is a modern 
practice, the ancient method was to guess; and 
where numbers are guessed they are always 
magnified.' ' To increase the importance of 
the labour, by multiplying its objects, is not a 
practice peculiar to the era we have mentioned. 

We dismounted from our horses a few 
moments near the mouth of Fox River, at a 
spot denominated La Charbonniere. Coal, of 
the slaty variety, is found at this place, in thin 
layers, alternating with shale. This formation 
crops out on a sloping bank, where both the 
coal and the shale have partially yielded to 
disintegration, producing a kind of soil of a 
peculiar aspect. Want of time precluded our 
entering into much examination. We were 
informed that these appearances characterize a 
considerable district of country, situated in the 
angle formed by the junction of the Fox River 
with the Illinois. These appearances, taken in 
connection with the nature of the country, 
which belongs wholly to the secondary forma- 
tion, make it quite probable that extensive and 
valuable beds of this mineral will be opened 
here. And it is an article which, in a country 
so thinly wooded, or rather so frequently des- 
titute of wood, must hereafter prove a source of 
incalculable benefit. 

From this spot, we rode farther and later 
than we otherwise should, with a view to reach 
no 



iijenrp iHotoe £cfjoolcraft 

the uncommonly beautiful place of encampment 
selected by our Indian guide — 

"To arched walks of twilight groves, 
And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves." 

13th. To avoid as much as possible, the 
great heats of noon, we left our camp at a 
very early hour. Our track lay over the same 
pleasing succession of prairies and groves, 
which have characterized the whole country 
from Peoria lake. We are no longer surprised at 
the extravagant praises bestowed upon the pic- 
turesque and pastoral features of this country, 
by Tonti and other early writers; though what 
is so lavishly said by the same class of writers 
respecting the positive advantages of the coun- 
try in a statistical point of view, is to be received 
with proper abatements. We must allow some- 
thing for the national warmth of expression of 
the French, and deduct a little for inaccuracy 
or carelessness of observation. To their en- 
chanted eyes, every grove was a paradise 
animated with birds of the most rare and 
beautiful plumage, and every prairie a gar- 
den filled with the most odoriferous flowers. 
The forest abounded with delicious nuts and 
fruits, the rivers with fish, and every part of 
the country was filled with deer, elk, and buf- 
falo. This was all measurably true, and they 
could add, with perfect consistency, that in 
every native they met a friend. Such an aspect 
of things, must naturally have inspired them 
in 



$ictureg of SWinoig 



with sentiments of delight, while their enterprise 
was praised, their commerce flourished, and 
their missionaries triumphed. 

We do not think they drew a faithful pic- 
ture of the country; we mean of its more 
important features, but we think they seldom 
erred less. We consider the soil excellent, the 
lands finely diversified, handsomely elevated, 
and well- watered; and bating the general defi- 
ciency of forest timber, we think his taste must 
be fastidious who could not select a residence 
to please both his fancy and his judgment. 
To the emigrant who goes westward, in the 
expectation of finding a terrestrial paradise, or 
a new El Dorado, which, if it does not abound 
in gold and diamonds, will, at least, produce 
wealth without economy or industry, and render 
men happy without submitting to the irksome 
restraints of law or religion; neither the coun- 
try we are considering, nor any other part of 
Western America, that we have seen, will af- 
ford the wished-for boon. To his imagination 
the west is a definite portion of country, but 
like the north, there is a total want of agree- 
ment respecting its position. 

"Ask where's the North? at York, 'tis on the Tweed; 
In Scotland at the Orcades; and there, 
At Greenland, Zembla and the Lord knows where." 

At nine o'clock in the morning, we came to 
a part of the country which is contiguous to 
the Des Plaines and the Kankakee, two consid- 
erable streams, which, by their junction, form 



i^enrp ftotoe £cf)oolcraft 

the Illinois. Here our party halted, to allow 
an opportunity of examining an object that had 
been described to us in a manner calculated to 
excite our curiosity 6 . 

We now took up our journey across the 
plains. The day had become sultry, and we 
suffered much from the combined effects of 
heat and thirst. We had on no part of the 
route, found the proportion of forest so limit- 
ed. Fields of prairie frequently spread before 
the eye, like the boundless expanse of the ocean, 
and the vision is as soon limited. The eye 
passes over this unvaried surface, often ' 'glan- 
cing from earth to heaven," without finding 
any prominent object to fix upon. Its appar- 
ent boundary is the horizon. This monotony 
of prospect would soon become tiresome, were 
it not occasionally relieved by small streams 
of clear water, by limited forests of timber, 
and by gentle elevations in the surface, which 
serve to stimulate attention. The slightest 
changes in the features of the country, or in 
the complexion of the soil, under such circum- 
stances, become interesting; — and the transi- 
tions from arenaceous to loamy — from dry to 
humid soil, and from black carbonaceous mould 
to loose pebble stones, as they appear in the 
deep-cut horse path, are sources of gratifica- 
tion, in a country whose prominent asperities 
are all deeply buried beneath alluvial plains. 

6 Here follows a long description of a petrified 
tree, which we omit to copy. 

113 



pcture^ of ^Pllinoig 



The sudden starting of a prairie-hen, or ' 'whir- 
ring pheasant" from the heath, or the bounding 
of a deer on the distant plain, are circumstances 
which the memory seizes upon, in the common 
dearth of local interest. So vigorous a growth 
of grasses and flowering plants, covers these 
plains, that in several places we found them to 
overtop our shoulders, sitting on horseback; — 
a proof if any were wanting, of the strength 
and richness of the soil. 

The field still open for the expansion of our 
population is certainly very ample, without 
seeking farther to curtail the hunting grounds 
of the Indians west of the Mississippi. But 
we apprehend something like a reversal of the 
usual consequences of new settlements, will be 
witnessed here. It has been observed, that the 
first effects of the plentitude of inhabitants is 
the destruction of wood; but the culture and 
creation of forests will here demand the earli- 
est attention. It appears very evident, that 
these grassy plains were formerly covered with 
forests of timber. There is no country in the 
world better adapted to their growth. Whether 
these ancient forests were burned down by fire, 
as some have supposed, or destroyed by water, 
as others maintain, may be an interesting topic 
for discussion to the geologist: — But the farm- 
er and planter are chiefly concerned in the 
restoration of the stock and the promotion of 
its growth. 

We entered the strip of woods which forms 
114 



I^emrp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

a margin to the river Au Saubles, during the 
most intense heat of the day, and enjoyed its 
refreshing shade for a few moments. Ten 
miles beyond this pellucid little river, we halted, 
and dismounted in the plains, and made a short 
excursion on foot to Mount Joliet. 

Any prominent swell in the surface of the 
soil, would appear interesting and remarkable 
in so flat a country, but this would be consid- 
ered a very striking object of curiosity, in a 
region of inequalities. It is, strictly speaking, 
neither a mountain nor a hill, but rather a 
mound, and the first impression made by its 
regular and well preserved outlines, is that of 
a work of art. This alluvial structure is seated 
on the plains, about six hundred yards west of 
the present channel of the river Des Plaines, 
but immediately upon, what appears to have 
been, the former bank of this river. Its figure, 
as seen at a distance, is that of a cone truncat- 
ed by a plain parallel to the base, but we find 
on approaching, its base describes an ellipsis. 
Its height we computed to be sixty feet. 
Its length about four hundred and fifty yards, 
and its width seventy-five yards. The top is 
perfectly level. The sides have a gradual and 
regular slope, but the acclivity is so great that 
we found the ascent laborious. There are a 
few shrubby oak trees on the western side, 
but every other part, like the plain in which it 
stands, is covered with grass. The materials 
of this extraordinary mound are, to all appear- 
ii5 



$ictuteg of ^PHinoxg 



ances, wholly alluvial, and not to be distin- 
guished from those of the contiguous country, 
from which it would appear, they have been 
scooped out. It is firmly seated on a horizon- 
tal stratum of secondary limestone. The view 
from this eminence is charming and diversified. 
The forests are sufficiently near to serve as a 
relief to the prairies. Clumps of oaks are 
scattered over the country. The lake Joliet, 
fifteen miles long, and about a quarter of a mile 
wide, lies in front. There is not perhaps a more 
noble and picturesque spot for a private man- 
sion in all America. Few persons will choose 
to pass it, without devoting an hour to its 
examination, and few will perhaps leave it, 
without feeling a conviction that it is the work 
of human hands. It has been remarked by 
Dr. Beck, that this is probably the largest 
mound within the limits of the United States. 
We continued our way, not dissatisfied with 
the loss of time occasioned by the examination 
of this object, and encamped at a late hour in 
the evening, on an open elevated piece of 
ground. Elevated situations for encampment 
are desirable at this season, to avoid the in- 
sects, which are very numerous, wherever there 
are trees or depressions in the surface to shel- 
ter them. A slight shower of rain fell while 
we were in the act of encamping. The atmos- 
phere soon resumed its serenity; and we sunk 
to sleep amid the mingled recollections of a 
long and fatiguing day's journey. 
116 



iijenrp iftotoe Schoolcraft 

14th. About ten o'clock in the morning, 
we reached the ford of the Des Plaines. We 
found the river about thirty yards wide, and 
the depth of water two feet. Beyond this 
place and the Vermillion, where we left the 
Illinois, we have seen the river but seldom, 
although our route has been for the greater 
part upon its banks. We have however seen 
its channel, at a sufficient number of points, to 
determine that it has several long and formid- 
able rapids, which completely intercept the 
navigation at this sultry season: — a remark 
that has been confirmed by meeting several 
traders on the plains, who had transported their 
goods and boats in carts from Chicago creek, 
and who informed us, that they thought it prac- 
ticable to enter the Illinois at Mount Joliet. 
This would lengthen the portage to about thirty 
miles, but it has been perceived that we our- 
selves began it, far below this last mentioned 
point. This fact is sufficient to show the error 
of those who have supposed, that a canal of 
only eight or ten miles would be necessary, to 
perfect the navigation between lake Michigan 
and the Illinois. A canal of this length would 
indeed perfect the communication, which al- 
ready exists at certain seasons, between Chi- 
cago creek and the Des Plaines, but must fall 
far short of the grand purpose. 

But although our journey has produced a con- 
viction, that the difficulty and expense which 
will attend this work are greatly underrated; it 
117 



fWctureg of ^flinoig 



has also impressed us with a more exalted 
opinion of this projected communication, and 
the ability of the country through which it 
must pass, eventually to complete and main- 
tain it. If the present scanty population and 
feeble means of this part of Illinois, has con- 
vinced us that the commencement and comple- 
tion of this important work, are more remote 
than we before supposed, its final execution is 
not the less certain, and we regard the plan as 
one entitled to every rational and proper aid. 
There are few portions of the western country, 
where the progress of settlement is more cer- 
tain, or which will admit of a more dense 
population; and the first efforts of such a 
community if enlightened and enterprising, 
will be to place themselves on an equality with 
other states, by opening the way to a northern 
market. 

We are indebted to a gentleman of correct 
observation, who has explored the route with 
particular reference to the subject of a canal, 
for the following information respecting those 
parts of the bed of the Illinois and Des Plaines, 
which we have not personally examined. The 
computed distance from the ford on the Des 
Plaines, to its union with the Kankakee, is about 
forty-five miles. Fifteen miles of this distance 
consists of lake Joliet, and the remainder is 
almost equally divided between ripples and still- 
waters. The next obstruction occurs at the 
Kickapoo rapids, which have a fall of perhaps 
118 



six feet, in the distance of a mile and a quarter. 
But these yield in importance to the Rock Fort 
rapids, which are commonly computed to be 
twenty-four miles long. The total fall of the 
river in this distance cannot be less than thirty- 
five or forty feet. The Illinois, in passing 
these rapids, is spread over a wide surface, 
which reduces the depth to a few inches, and 
hence it has been suggested, that by cutting a 
channel in the rock so as to concentrate the 
volume, a good and sufficient navigation would 
be afforded for boats of eight or ten tons bur- 
den. By a similar labour, the whole series of 
rapids could be improved, and at perhaps a 
comparatively small expense. But it may be 
questioned, whether this species of succedane- 
ous canalling is calculated to answer a valuable 
purpose. We believe experience has proved 
it cheaper in the end, to open an entire new 
channel, than to improve the natural bed of a 
shallow and rapid stream, or one that is subject 
to great and sudden fluctuations from vernal 
or autumnal freshets. This appears to be the 
proper construction applicable to that noble 
idea of the celebrated Brindley, "that streams 
were only made to feed canals" — a principle 
which, so far as we are capable of judging, 
appears to be adopted by modern engineers, 
and has been pretty rigidly applied in the 
instance of the Erie canal. 

There is another point of inquiry connected 
with this canal, which appears to have been 
119 



$ictureg of SWmoig 



too generally overlooked, but which may per- 
haps oppose serious difficulties to the work. 
We allude to the formation of a harbour on 
lake Michigan, where vessels may lie in safety 
while they are discharging the commodities 
destined for the Illinois, or encountering the 
delays which commerce frequently imposes. 
It is well known, that after passing the Mani- 
tou Islands, there is no harbour or shelter for 
vessels in the southern part of lake Michigan; 
and that every vessel which passes into that 
lake after the month of September, runs an 
imminent hazard of shipwreck. Vessels bound 
to Chicago come to anchor upon a gravelly 
bottom in the lake, and discharging with all 
possible speed, hasten on their return. The 
sand which is driven up into the mouth of Chi- 
cago creek, will admit boats only to pass over 
the bar, though the water is deep enough to 
allow vessels to lie above. Among the expedi- 
ents which have been proposed for keeping the 
mouth of this creek clear of sand, one of the 
most ingenious, and perhaps practicable, is that 
of turning the Konomic (Calumet), by a canal 
of sixteen miles, into the Chicago, above the 
fort, and by the increased body and pressure 
of water to drive out the accumulated sands. 
It is yet somewhat problematical, whether a 
safe and permanent harbour can be constructed 
by any effort of human ingenuity, upon the 
bleak and naked shores of these lakes, exposed 
as they are to the most furious tempests. And 
120 



J^enrp Hiotoe £cl>ooIcraft 

we are inclined to think it would be feasible to 
construct an artificial island off the mouth of 
Chicago creek, which might be connected by a 
bridge with the main land, with more perma- 
nent benefit to the country at large, if not with 
less expense, than to keep the Chicago clear 
of sand. Stone for such a work is abundant 
near the entrance into Green Bay, and if built 
on a scale sufficiently liberal, it would afford con- 
venient sites for all the store-houses required. 
But we must return to the narration of our 
journey, which here draws to a close. On 
crossing the Des Plaines, we found the oppo- 
site shore thronged with Indians, whose loud 
and obtrusive salutations caused us to make a 
few minutes' halt. From this point, we were 
scarcely ever out of sight of straggling parties 
all proceeding to the same place. Most com- 
monly they were mounted on horses, and 
apparelled in their best manner, and decorated 
with medals, silver bands, and feathers. The 
gaudy and showy dresses of these troops of 
Indians, with the jingling caused by the striking 
of their ornaments, and their spirited manner 
of riding, created a scene as novel as it was 
interesting. Proceeding from all parts of a 
very extensive circle of country, like rays con- 
verging to a focus, the nearer we approched, 
the more compact and concentrated the body 
became, and we found our cavalcade rapidly 
augmented, and consequently the dust, con- 
fusion, and noise increased at every by-path 

121 



$xcture£ of 3Winoi£ 



which intersected our way. After crossing the 
south fork of the Chicago, and emerging from 
the forest that skirts it, nearly the whole num- 
ber of those who had preceded us appeared 
on the extensive and level plain that stretches 
along the shore of the lake, while the refresh- 
ing and noble spectacle of the lake itself, with 
"vast and sullen swell" appeared beyond. We 
found, on reaching the post, that between two 
and three thousand Indians were assembled — 
chiefly Pottowattomies, Ottowas, and Chippe- 
was. Many arrived on the two following days. 
Provisions were daily issued by the Indian 
Department, during the treaty, to about three 
thousand. 



To accommodate the large assemblage men- 
tioned in the preceding chapter, an open bower, 
provided with seats for the principal chiefs 
and head men, had been put up on the green, 
extending along the north bank of Chicago 
creek. This site, being at some distance from 
the principal encampments, and directly under 
the command of the guns of the fort, ensured 
both safety and order for the occasion. The 
formalities which custom has prescribed in nego- 
tiations of this kind occupied the first two or 
three days after our arrival, during which time 
the number of Indians was constantly augment- 
ing. It was not until the 17th that they were 
formally met in council, when Governor Cass, 
122 



i^enrp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

on behalf of the commissioners, stated to them 
the following proposition: 

Your Father has observed that you possess 
an extensive country about the river St. Joseph, 
which you do not cultivate nor appear to want. 

He has directed us to come here for the 
purpose of making a purchase of a part of 
that land, and to pay you a liberal price for it, 
which we shall agree upon. 

The quantity of game you now kill, in that 
part of the country, is very little — almost 
nothing; and we can give you for it what will 
be more valuable and serviceable to yourselves. 

We have brought with us a large amount 
of goods, to be distributed among you; and 
we shall also stipulate to pay a certain sum of 
money annually. 

It was agreed, by the treaty of St. Mary's, 
to pay you an annuity of one thousand two 
hundred and fifty dollars, and by the treaty 

of one thousand dollars; — both of which 

sums of money are now here, and ready to be 
paid to you. 

Should we conclude an agreement for the 
purchase of the lands at St. Joseph, we feel 
willing that such reservations should be made 
as may be proper. 

It will probably be many years before the 
country will be settled by the Americans, and 
during all that time you will retain possession 
of the lands, at the same time that you are 
drawing annuities for them. 
123 



$icture£ of STOnote 



We have no instructions from your great 
Father to purchase the lands on this side (west) 
of the lake. 

You can take time to consider the proposi- 
tion we have now made. Counsel among 
yourselves, and deliver us your answer as soon 
as you can agree. Above all, let me entreat 
you to refrain from whiskey during the treaty, 
that you may be able to see justice done to 
yourselves. 

It is expected you will have sufficient time 
to deliberate by the day after to-morrow, when 
we shall expect your answer in this place. This 
will give you plenty of time to consult, and 
determine what is best for your interest. 

Each sentence, being distinctly translated, 
was received with the usual response of Hoah ! — 
a term that, on these public occasions, is merely 
indicative of attention. l A short pause ensued, 
during which some customary presents were is- 
sued, when Me-te-a, a Pottowattomie chief from 
the Wabash, made the following laconic reply : 

My Father, — We have listened to what you 
have said. We shall now retire to our camps 

^his interjection, when strongly emphasised, and 
the response is made by many voices, denotes also 
approbation ; — and may then be considered as equiv- 
alent to the expression " hear him." Respect to the 
speaker demands that it should be uttered at the con- 
clusion of every sentence in public councils; but it is 
easy for a spectator to perceive, by the manner of 
enunciation, whether the matter spoken excites plea- 
sure, indifference, or disapprobation. 
124 



ifjettrp ftotoe £cJ>oolcraft 

and consult upon it. You will hear nothing 
more from us at present. 

It might be inferred from the attention with 
which the proposition was received, that they 
were not averse to it, though the cautious 
reply we have quoted furnished nothing from 
which an opinion, either favourable or unfa- 
vourable, could be drawn . This led us to expect 
their formal reply of the 19th with increased 
interest. It was delivered by the same person 
who had spoken before, and as this speech 
evinces a cast of retrospection which is not 
usual, and a hesitancy between following the 
policy of selling their lands adopted by their 
forefathers, or stopping short; — together with 
a boldness of sentiment, tempered by a fear to 
offend, and finally, by a negative to the prop- 
osition, which was afterward reversed, we 
shall present it entire. 

My Father, — We meet you here to-day, 
because we had promised it, to tell you our 
minds, and what we have agreed upon among 
ourselves. You will listen to us with a good 
mind, and believe what we say. 

My Father, — You know that we first came 
to this country, a long time ago, and when we 
sat ourselves down upon it, we met with a 
great many hardships and difficulties. Our 
country was then very large, but it has dwindled 
away to a small spot; and you wish to purchase 
that ! This has caused us to reflect much upon 
what you have told us, and we have, therefore, 
125 



$ictureg of ^Hinoi^ 



brought along all the chiefs and warriors, and 
the young men and women and children of our 
tribe, that one part may not do what the others 
object to, and that all may be witnesses of 
what is going forward. 

My Father, — You know your children. 
Since you first came among them, they have 
listened to your words with an attentive ear; 
and have always hearkened to your counsels. 
Whenever you have had a proposal to make to 
us — whenever you have had a favour to ask 
of us, we have always lent a favourable ear, 
and our invariable answer has been "Yes." 
This you know! 

My Father, — A long time has passed since 
we first came upon our lands; and our people 
have all sunk into their graves. They had 
sense. We are all young and foolish, and do 
not wish to do any thing that they would not 
approve, were they living. We are fearful we 
shall offend their spirits if we sell our lands; 
and we are fearful we shall offend you, if we do 
not sell them. This has caused us great per- 
plexity of thought, because we have coun- 
selled among ourselves, and do not know how 
we can part with the land. 

My Father, — Our country was given to us 
by the Great Spirit, who gave it to us to hunt 
upon, and to make our corn-fields upon, to live 
upon, and to make down our beds upon, when we 
die. And he would never forgive us, should 
we now bargain it away. When you first spoke 
126 



J^entp Jlotoe Schoolcraft 

to us for lands at St. Mary's, 2 we said we had 
a little, and agreed to sell you a piece of it; but 
we told you we could spare no more. Now, 
you ask us again. You are never satisfied ! 

My Father, — We have sold you a great 
tract of land, already; but it is not enough ! 
We sold it to you for the benefit of your chil- 
dren, to farm and to live upon. We have now 
but little left. We shall want it all for 
ourselves. We know not how long we may 
live, and we wish to leave some lands for our 
children to hunt upon. You are gradually 
taking away our hunting grounds. Your chil- 
dren are driving us before them. We are grow- 
ing uneasy. What lands you have, you may 
retain for ever; but we shall sell no more. 

My Father, — You think, perhaps, that I 
speak in passion; but my heart is good towards 
you. I speak like one of your own children. 
I am an Indian, a red-skin, and live by hunting 
and fishing, but my country is already too small ; 
and I do not know how to bring up my children, 
if I give it all away. We sold you a fine tract 
of land at St. Mary's. We said to you then, 
it was enough to satisfy your children, and 
the last we should sell; and we thought it would 
be the last you would ask for. 

My Father, — We have now told you what 
we had to say. It is what was determined on, 
in council among ourselves; and what I have 
spoken is the voice of my nation. On this 

2 Ohio. 

127 



$icture0 of 3PHinoi£ 



account, all our people have come here to 
listen to me; but do not think we have a bad 
opinion of you. Where should we get a bad 
opinion of you ? We speak to you with a good 
heart, and the feelings of a friend. 

My Father, — You are acquainted with this 
piece of land — the country we live in. Shall 
we give it up ? Take notice it is a small piece 
of land, and if we give it away, what will 
become of us? The Great Spirit, who has 
provided it for our use, allows us to keep it, 
to bring up our young men and support our 
families. We should incur his anger, if we 
bartered it away. If we had more land, you 
should get more, but our land has been wasting 
away ever since the white people became our 
neighbours, and we have now hardly enough 
left to cover the bones of our tribe. 

My Father, — You are in the midst of your 
red children. What is due to us, in money, we 
wish, and will receive at this place; and we 
want nothing more. 

My Father, — We all shake hands with you. 3 
Behold our warriors, our women, and children. 
Take pity on us, and on our words. 4 

3 This, it will be perceived, is a figurative expres- 
sion, much used. 

4 1 wish it to be distinctly understood, that in my 
reports of these speeches, I have adhered literally to 
the spirit and form of expression of the interpreters, 
and have seldom ventured to change the particular 
phraseology. This will be apparent on perusal, and 
128 



i^enrp iiotoe Schoolcraft 

To place the argument, respecting the pres- 
ent limits of the Pottowattomie territory in a 
proper light, and prevent erroneous impres- 
sions, Gov. Cass thought proper to enter into 
some detail of observation. 

When I look around I see very few Potto- 
wattomies; and their tents are thinly scattered 
over a very great extent of country — great 
part of which they cannot occupy, and do not 
want . Their country on the south extends along 
both banks of the Illinois, including all its rich 
tributaries. On the north, it reaches along 
the western shores of Lake Michigan to the 
Monomonies of Millewacky, and to the Win- 
nebagoes of Green Bay. On the east, they 
have all the country beyond the St. Joseph to 
the head waters of the Maumee and the Wabash; 
and towards the west, their territories extend 
to the Foxes and Sacs on the Mississippi. 
They also still occupy the tracts sold by the 
treaties of St. Mary's and St. Louis, and will 
long retain possession of the country now pro- 
posed to be purchased. With such an ample 
territory, I am suprised they should utter one 
word about the smallness of their country. 

will account for the familiar cast of many of the sen- 
tences. Authenticity was deemed a paramount object, 
and to the attainment of this I have sacrificed all 
attempt at ornament or embellishment. By this course, 
undoubtedly, great injustice is done to the spirit and 
force of the original; but it must be recollected, that 
it is not the original, but the verbal interpretation 
that I have undertaken to preserve. 
129 



$ictute£ of STOnoig 



In looking over all this extensive tract, their 
corn-fields bear no greater proportion to the 
whole quantity of arable land, than two or 
three flies upon the surface of this table. As 
to game, there is very little in the country. 
It is nearly gone, and they cannot rely upon 
it for a subsistence. 

When I cast my eyes upon the Pottowat- 
tomies seated around me, and see many 
of their warriors and women badly clothed, 
their young men ragged and their children 
naked, it appears to me they stand very much 
in need of something -from their Great Father. 
The presents we have brought along, and the 
annuities which they would receive, will be 
vastly more important than any game they can 
procure upon the lands. 

When their wise men take this into consid- 
eration — when they talk it deliberately over, and 
see where their reservations are to be; — when 
they consider the money they are to receive, 
and the goods that await their acceptance, and 
how much superior these things will be to the 
uncertainties of the chase, I am certain that 
they must accede to our proposals. 

In allusion to their growing uneasiness on 
the increasing power of their Anglo-American 
neighbours, it was remarked : — We are not 
sent here by our Great Father to do you injury 
or injustice: — it is his wish to protect, not to 
injure you. He has observed the impoverished 
and naked state of your people, and he seeks 
130 



i^enrp Motet Schoolcraft 

to promote their welfare, by exchanging a large 
amount of money and goods for a part of those 
lands which you do not want. It will be a 
number of years before the Americans settle 
upon the country, and in the mean time you 
will retain possession of it, and enjoy the same 
advantages of hunting and fishing you now do. 
This your old men know! They are wise, and 
understand the interests and the wants of their 
people. They know that they have a very large 
territory, and that there is little game left upon 
it, so that they are obliged to go into distant 
countries, during a part of the year, to find a 
support. 

They were complimented on the manner in 
which they had delivered their sentiments. 

There is one thing in which you have behaved 
like men of sense — in putting forth one of 
your wise men to speak for you. He has 
spoken like an American. This gives us plea- 
sure. We admire the independence he has 
manifested. In all your business with us you 
should be careful always to select your wise 
men to speak, and to transact your affairs. 
By this means you will always have justice 
done. Your Great Father does not send us 
here to be answered by boys. 5 

I see around me a great many wise men, 
and old men, who are capable of conducting 
this business; and I do not doubt when they 

5 This was intended as a reproof to a young chief, 
who had spoken rather impudently the preceding day. 

131 



$icture£ of ^Ilmote 



shall counsel with you on the subject, they will 
point out the advantages of our proposal — for 
you all stand greatly in need of the fine cloths 
and blankets and other necessaries which your 
Great Father has put into our hands to present 
to you. 

They were dismissed with the following sen- 
tence: 

You can now retire to your camps. Meet 
together — counsel among yourselves — see 
where your reservations are to be and what 
money you are to receive: — Talk it over delib- 
erately — make the best bargain you can, and 
meet us here to-morrow, when we will settle 
the boundary lines. 

On the 22d the Indians assembled at 1 1 
o'clock in the morning, and sent a person to 
inform the commissioners that they were ready 
with their final answer. As the proceedings 
of this day evince some diplomatic manoeuvr- 
ing on the part of the Indians, and bring into 
discussion some important traits of their char- 
acter and customs, we shall present more copious 
extracts from our minutes than would perhaps 
otherwise be necessary. The first person who 
arose to speak, on this occasion, was Topina- 
bee, principal chief of the Pottowattomie 
nation, — a man equally venerable for his age 
and standing. He addressed his own people : — 

My young men, warriors, and village chiefs, — 
it is to you I speak! You are met here in 
council before our Father, who spoke to us 
132 



i^entp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

the other day about our lands. You will listen 
to my words. 

We have talked and counselled together — 
what it is proper for us to do. What has 
passed between us you all know ! I ask you 
now to listen to me, while I explain it to our 
Father, and when I have taken my seat, listen 
to the other chiefs who may speak. 

He then turned to the commissioners — 

My Father, — Your children have listened to 
your words at the last council — you will now 
listen to them. I have always listened to you 
in my heart: I have never been missing when 
you had a proposal to make to my people. 

My Father, — Behold our chiefs and war- 
riors — the pride of our nation before you ! 
Have they ever disobeyed your call ? No ! 
Their ears have always been open, and their 
answer has been "Yes, " whenever you have 
had anything to request of them. But our 
people have fallen away, and we have no wise 
men left. Now we do not know what to do. 
We have found it hard to come to a determina- 
tion. We are averse to selling any more of 
our lands. 

My Father, — We do not know what to think 
of the American people ! They are always in 
want of lands. They can never get enough ! 
We hardly know what you mean, or with what 
words to answer you. 

My Father, — When you promise your chil- 
dren any thing, we say in our hearts, this man 
133 



$icture£ of ^llinoig 



speaks the truth. When you speak to us, we 
expect nothing else from you. You have called 
us to this treaty — we have met you in other 
treaties. We have relied upon your words; 
but it seems you have forgot some promises 
heretofore made to us. 

To his people — 

Our Father thinks, perhaps, that we have 
fallen asleep! — that we have forgotten what 
was promised us; but we never forget a prom- 
ise. 

Then resuming his speech — 

My Father, — I am a red-skin. I do not 
know how to read or write, but I never forget 
what is promised me. We sold you a tract 
of land at St. Mary's — we sold it cheap. But 
we have not received all the money that is due. 
This is what our people say. You there told 
us also, My children, it is the last time I speak 
to you for lands. 

As soon as this chief had taken his seat, 
Metea 6 arose; 

6 This chief was wounded in the attack on Fort 
Wayne, during the late war, in consequence of which 
he is an invalid, and now, as is said, draws a pension 
from the British government. He has probably 
passed the age of forty: — he has a sullen dignity of 
manner, and evinces perhaps generally, a great con- 
fidence in his own powers. His personal appearance 
is rather repulsive and unpleasant, owing in some 
measure to a wounded and withered arm, and a vis- 
ible scar upon his nostril. In stature he is nearly six 
feet; — his eyes are small, black, and brilliant, and 
the distance between them is perhaps less than com- 

134 



i^entp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

My Father, — I am an Indian — the same in 
looks that you found my forefathers, when you 
first came into our country. I live upon the 
same soil they lived upon, — I live the same 
kind of life — share the same hardships, and 
at last shall lie down with them. They had 
nothing to leave us, but their lands. Shall we 
now sell them ? 

My Father, — You have seen all our lands — 
you have just returned from a journey to look 
at them. When you first came to walk upon 
them, they must have appeared pleasant to your 
eyes. My Father, you see a great way ahead! 

My Father, — When you first came among 
us, we listened to you with a willing ear. You 

mon: — his nose is well shaped, somewhat aqui- 
line: — the lines of his lips are sharp and well defined, 
evincing rather the orator than warrior. In his dress, 
he was uniform during the treaty, and exhibited few 
peculiarities. He wore a red military plume upon 
his head, fastened not ungracefully to his hair. In 
speaking he always stood erect and firm, making use 
of his right hand, to give force or meaning to those 
expressions requiring it. His sentences have a mea- 
sured flow; and he appears to have a ready command 
of language. His voice is not unpleasant, nor can his 
manner be considered as vehement, comparatively 
speaking. It is rather in his sentiments, than in his 
action and manner, that he is bold, fearless, and 
original. In fine, he is by far the best speaker in 
his nation, and this reputation he enjoys by common 
consent. If nothing more than his speeches, deport- 
ment, and influence upon the present occasion could 
be adduced, these would be sufficient to prove his 
intellectual gifts, quite above the common order of 
his countrymen. 

135 



$ictureg of ^Hinoi^ 



talked to us about our lands, which were given 
to us by the Great Spirit; and our old chiefs, 
who are now dead and gone, hearkened to your 
words, and gave you the land. When these 
men sold you the land, 7 you said that their con- 
dition would be bettered — that the money and 
presents would be more useful than the land — 
that we should no longer go naked, but be com- 
fortably clothed. It was a pleasing prospect; 
but now look around you, and see, we are still 
naked! 

My Father, — Heretofore when our chiefs 
sold you land, it was with the consent of the 
whole nation. Many of those chiefs are now 
dead — a few are still remaining: but they 
were careful to inform us of the terms of their 
treaties. They said you told us, that our women 
and children should be dressed like white people, 
and that we should live a more easy life, on 
account of the money we were to receive. This 
is what we have to say. Our country is now 
narrowed to a small spot. We have listened 
to you until it is nearly gone. Our footsteps 
have passed off it. And behold our people. 
They stand before you, and are naked! 

My Father, — You have made several prom- 
ises to your children, and you have put the 
money down upon the table; but as fast as you 
have put it upon the top, it has slipped away to 

7 The pronoun in many of these cases does not 
refer to the commissioners personally, but to the 
American government and people. 

136 



i^enrp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

the bottom, in a manner that is incomprehen- 
sible to us. We do not know what becomes of 
it. When we get together and divide it among 
ourselves, it is nothing; and we remain as poor 
as ever. 

My Father, — I only explain to you the words 
of my brethren. We can only see what is be- 
fore our eyes, and are unable to comprehend all 
things. You see that newspaper on the table be- 
fore you. It is double. You can see what is 
upon the upper sheet, but cannot see what is 
below. We cannot tell how our money goes! 

My Father, — We met you in council at St. 
Mary's, with a good heart and gentle words. 
You there made us some promises. You did not 
give us enough for our lands. We told you so. 
And you said that you would give us more; 
but we have seen nothing of it. At that treaty, 
you said you would give us two thousand 
five hundred dollars; but we did not find it 
enough. We asked you to add one thousand 
dollars. You said, yes; but we have never re- 
ceived it. This is the reason we give you a 
refusal. 

My Father, — We have always been attentive 
to your words. You have always told us we 
had no game upon our lands. We know this; 
but as the Great Spirit has given us our lands, 
we trust he will take care to keep something 
upon them, so long as we want them. We can 
always pick up little things to live upon. 

My Father, — You want an answer, I suppose 
137 



pcturtg of 3Winot£ 



you have been tired of waiting for it. You now 
have it. This is all we have to say, and it is 
the last. 

My Father, — We regret we cannot grant 
what you ask, and we are afraid that our blunt 
way of telling you so may offend you: but we 
hope not. Do you suppose we wish to injure 
your feelings ? When we ask you for anything, 
we do it with timidity and a shame-face. Do 
not blush at what we say. We have often been 
put to the blush, and you cannot consider it 
hard that we should now give you cause to 
blush. 

My Father, — You have denied us the small- 
est favours. When I came to ask you yester- 
day for only a gill of whiskey apiece for my 
young men; you refused it. You must reflect 
that we have feelings as well as you. 

The several charges brought forward in these 
speeches, with such gravity and apparent plaus- 
ibility, were each distinctly and fully replied 
to. Before I talk any more, said Gov. Class 
upon the business we are now considering, I 
wish to make a few remarks on some things 
which Metea has mentioned. 

In the first place, when you asked me for the 
whiskey, you ought not to have blushed because 
I refused it, but because you asked it. I told 
you, some days ago, you should have no more 
whiskey — that I had stopped it all up tight, so 
that none could get out. Do your people sup- 
pose I would tell them a lie ? 
138 



i^enrp iHotoe Schoolcraft 

If we wish to get your lands without paying 
a just equivalent for them, we have nothing to 
do but to get you all intoxicated, and we could 
purchase as much land as we pleased. You 
perfectly know that when in liquor you have 
not your proper senses, and are wholly unfit to 
transact any business, especially business of so 
weighty a nature. When intoxicated, you may 
be induced to sign any paper — you then fall 
asleep, and when you awake, find you have lost 
all your lands. But instead of pursuing this 
course, we keep the whiskey from you, that 
you may make the best bargain for yourselves, 
your women, and children. I am surprised 
particularly, that your old men should come 
forward continually crying whiskey! whiskey! 
whiskey! 

The little liquor you asked for, would neither 
make me, nor my friend, (Mr. Sibley, who was 
associated with Gov. Cass in the commission) 
richer nor poorer. The worth of the whiskey is 
trifling — too trifling to merit a moment's con- 
sideration, but we denied it to you only to keep 
you sober, that you should be able to see justice 
done to yourselves. 

This passion for strong drink has injured 
your nation more than any other thing — more 
than all the other causes put together. It is 
not a long period since you were a powerful 
and independent tribe — now, you are reduced 
to a handful, and it is all owing to ardent spir- 
its. How should we look, should we hereafter 

139 



$icture£ of f llmox£ 



meet you in council, and you should get up 
and say, We were drunk when we signed this 
treaty ! 

We are daily giving you as much as you can 
eat; you are receiving a liberal allowance of 
provisions every morning, and cannot complain 
that there is any thing wanting to render your 
situation comfortable. We neither spare nor 
value the expense of it. If you will drink and 
must drink, at least wait until a proper time. 
If you have any regard for my words, or those 
of my friend, (Mr. Sibley) you will say no 
more about whiskey. 

Touching the alleged non-payment of a part 
of the money stipulated in the treaty of St. 
Mary's, he remarked — 

In the first place the United States never 
made a single promise that they have not ful- 
filled. We put it all upon paper, and we there 
find it ; and we know what it is. Your Great 
Father resides at a great distance, but he keeps 
a watchful eye over you, and over us, and 
would be highly incensed against any of his 
public servants who should do you an act of 
injustice. As to your annuities, you must 
divide them between yourselves. We give out 
a large amount to you all, and we wish it to 
be fairly divided. 

You say that you were promised three thou- 
sand five hundred dollars at the treaty of St. 
Mary's, and received but two thousand five 
hundred. It is not so! You were never prom- 
140 



iijenrp ftotoe ^cijoolcraft 

ised it! You were promised two thousand five 
hundred dollars, and it was written down; and 
you never made a request for one thousand 
dollars more. There! (pointing to Mr. Kinzie) 
and there! (pointing to Mr. Burnet) stand the 
two men who made the bargain with you, for the 
amount of the annuity at St. Mary's. I shall now 
sit down to give them an opportunity to speak. 
John Kinzie, Esq., to the Indians: — 
You must recollect that when I first spoke 
to you about the annuity at St. Mary's, I 
told you I could offer you only — that your 
Father had authorized me to offer you only two 
thousand dollars. You said it was too little. 
I took this answer to your Father, who said 
that the annuity was small, because you had 
sold but a small tract of country: but he author- 
ized me to give a little more, which you agreed 
to, and upon this, the treaty was signed. Mr. 
Bertrand was also present, and can speak to 
the point. Here Mr. Kinzie further observed, 
that the next day after the conclusion of the 
treaty, the Indians got into a drinking frolic, 
and disputed about the sum; but he went and 
explained it to them, as before stated, when 
they were satisfied. Mr. Bertrand then address- 
ed the Indians in confirmation of the statement 
of Mr. Kinzie, and that the sum agreed upon 
was two thousand five hundred dollars. Mr. 
John Burnet also addressed them to the same 
effect, and confirmed the testimony of Mr. 
Kinzie and Mr. Bertrand. 
141 



$icture£ of SWmoig 



These statements, coming from persons per- 
fectly versed in the Indian language — persons 
who had spent their lives among them, one of 
whom is connected with them by blood, and 
another by inter-marriage, persons who were 
acquainted with perhaps every man in the nation, 
and who severally enjoy a high standing among 
them, were received by the Indians with con- 
clusive weight. Nor did they utter another 
word on the subject either of the annuity or the 
whiskey, although the discussion upon the main 
subject was protracted seven days longer. 
Governor Cass proceeded — 

Now, I trust, you are satisfied that the sum 
was two thousand five hundred dollars, and 
that the United States always do you perfect 
justice. Besides, before the treaty was signed, 
it was read over, sentence by sentence, and 
explained to you; and I now see a dozen per- 
sons around me who were present. There is 
Col. Godfroy, Capt. Hackley, Mr. Conner, etc. 
and if there had been any mistake they would 
have observed it at the time. 

There is another point, to which I wish to 
call your attention. You say I told you at St. 
Mary's, that I should never ask you for any 
more lands. 8 I never told a man of your nation 
any thing like it. On the contrary, I told you 
that your Great Father would always ask for 

8 Some promise of this kind is understood to have 
been made to the Indians, at a treaty concluded by 
Governor Hull at Detroit. 
142 



i^enrp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

lands when he thought proper — that it did not 
depend upon me, and that I could make no 
promise. I make no such promise now. I 
have no right to make such a promise. When 
your Great Father wants more land, he will 
ask for it; and I can give no pledge that he 
will not, within a month after the conclusion 
of this treaty, solicit new concessions. 

Respecting the bold and impetuous manner 
which had accompanied their negative on the 
main question, he observed: — 

I am not at all dissatisfied with Metea. I 
admire the frankness and independence with 
which he has spoken; and I hope you will all 
be equally free in speaking your minds. I 
know we shall, in the end, conclude a bargain 
for the lands, and have therefore listened to 
what has been said without any apprehension 
about the result. It was to be expected that 
you would be slow in acceding to our wishes 
in a public manner, — whatever might be the 
feelings and wishes of individuals. I know you 
are too wise to reject such an offer. 

Our friends, the Ottowas, were not all here 
when we first made our proposal, but" are now 
present, and will consider our words as also 
addressed to them. 

The clear and full manner in which their 
allegations were answered, and the plain col- 
loquial style and force of expression employed 
in reference to the peculiar idiom of their lan- 
guage, produced a visible and striking effect 
143 



pctureg of gWmoig 



upon the assembled multitude, and upon the 
tone and feeling with which they afterward 
continued the discussion. 

After a short pause, Keewaygooshkum — 
a chief of the first authority among the Otto- 
was, delivered his sentiments, in a clear and 
methodical speech, the greater part of which 
we present to the reader, not so much from 
any attractions it presents as a specimen of 
Indian oratory, as from the circumstance of 
its being a curious and valuable recital of his- 
torical events from the mouth of an Indian. 9 
The only part of it particularly affecting the 
purchase is embraced in the concluding sen- 
tence. 

My Father, — Listen to me! The first white 
people seen by us were the French. When 
they first ventured into these lakes they hailed 
us as children; — they came with presents and 
promises of peace, and we took them by the 
hand. We gave them what they wanted, and 
initiated them into our mode of life, which they 
readily fell into. After some time, during 

9 A series of misfortunes has since overtaken this 
friendly, modest, and sensible chief. On returning 
from the treaty of Chicago, while off the mouth of 
Grand River in Lake Michigan, his canoe was struck 
by a flaw of wind and upset. After making every 
exertion, he saw his wife and all his children, except 
one son, perish. With this son he reached the shore ; 
but as if to crown his misfortune, this only surviving 
child has since been poisoned for the part he took 
in the treaty. 

144 



i^enrp ftotoe ^ctjoolcraft 

which we had become well acquainted, we em- 
braced their father, (the king of France), as 
our father. 

Shortly after, those people that wear red 
coats, (the English), came to this country, and 
overthrew the French; and they extended 
their hand to us in friendship. As soon as the 
French were overthrown the British told us : — 
we will clothe you in the same manner the 
French did — we will supply you with all you 
want and will purchase all your peltries, as they 
formerly did. 

Sure enough! After the British took pos- 
session of the country, they fulfilled all their 
promises. When they told us we should have 
any thing, we were sure to get it ; and we got 
from them the best goods. 

Some time after the British had been in 
possession of the country, it was reported that 
another people, who wore white clothes, had 
arisen and driven the British out of the land. 
These people we first met at Greenville, 
(Wayne's treaty, 1795), and took them by the 
hand. 

When the Indians first met the American 
chief, (Gen. Wayne,) in council, there were but 
few Ottowas present; but he said to them, 
"when I sit myself down at Detroit, you will 
all see me." Shortly after, he arrived at De- 
troit. Proclamation was then made for all the 
Indians to come in. 

We were told, — "The reason I do not push 
145 



$icture0 of STOnoig 



those British farther is, that we may not forget 
their example in giving you presents of cloth, 
arms, ammunition, and whatever else you may 
require." 

Sure enough! The first time, we were 
clothed with great liberality: you gave us 
strouds, guns, ammunition, and many other 
things we stood in need of, and said, — "This 
is the way you may always expect to be used. " 
It was also said, that whenever we were in 
great necessity, you would help us. 

When the Indians on the Maumee 10 were 
first about to sell their lands, we heard it with 
both ears, but we never received a dollar. 

The Chippewas, the Pottowattomies, and 
the Ottowas WERE ORIGINALLY ONE 
NATION! We separated from each other 
near Michilimackinac. We were related by the 
ties of blood, language, and interest; but in 
the course of a long time, these things have 
been forgotten, and both nations have sold 
their lands, without consulting us. 

Sometimes it has happened that we have 
been at Detroit when the money was dealt out 
to the other nations, and we wished for a 
share; but in vain. We have never received 
any. 11 

10 This expression particularly refers to a part of 
the Ottowas nation, who reside upon that stream. 

n Here Gov. Cass stopped him, and said that he 
and his people had received $500, in the autumn of 
1820; to which Keewaygooshkum assented. 
146 



iijenrp JSotoe Schoolcraft 

Our brothers, the Chippewas, have also 
sold you a large tract of land at Saganaw. 
People are constantly passing through the 
country, but we received neither invitation nor 
money. It is surprising that the Pottowat- 
tomies, Ottowas, and Chippewas, who are all 
one nation, should sell their lands without giving 
each other notice. Have we then degenerated 
so much that we can no longer trust one an- 
other ? 

Perhaps the Pottowattomies may think I have 
come here on a begging journey, that I wish 
to claim a share of lands to which my people 
are not entitled. I tell them it is not so. We 
have never begged, and shall not now com- 
mence. 

When I went to Detroit last fall, Governor 
Cass told me to come to this place at this time, 
and listen to what he had to say in council. 

As we live a great way in the woods, we 
never see white people except in the fall, when 
the traders come among us. We have not so 
many opportunities to profit by this intercourse 
as our neighbours, and to get what neces- 
saries we require; but we make out to live inde- 
pendently, and trade upon our own lands} 1 

We have, heretofore, received nothing less 
than justice from the Americans, and all we 

12 We understood this entire sentence to be spoken 
ironically, in relation to the Pottowattomies, who, it 
would seem, have not always confined themselves to 
their own lands. 

147 



$icture£ of STOnoig 



expect, in the present treaty, is a full propor- 
tion of the money and goods. 



The speech which we have given at the con- 
clusion of the last chapter, containing the first 
public acquiescence in the sale, and that an 
almost unconditional one, produced a very 
sensible effect upon the Indians, who mani- 
fested considerable agitation, and an impatient 
desire to speak. Several chiefs arose in quick 
succession, and expressed themselves in a hur- 
ried and rapid manner, in favour of the sale. 

Metaawau, a Chippewa chief from the Plains, 
said: — 

My Father, — I shake hands with you, and 
with the President of the United States, and 
with the Great Spirit that makes all our flesh. 
I have come here to see and hear, — and with 
those who are around me, wish to know what 
sum of money you will give us for our lands. 
I wish also to know what quantity of clothing 
you mean to give us to clothe ourselves, both 
men and women. 

My Father, — Behold! see my brethren, both 
young and old — the warriors and chiefs — the 
women and children of my nation. I expect, 
when they get up to go home, that they will be 
dressed out like flowers in the prairies. I 
expect they will not only have their bodies 
covered, but also something to lay upon their 
shoulders. 

148 



i^entp Utotoe £rf>oolcraft 

My Father, — I wish you also to explain to us 
the sum of money you intend to pay to us yearly. 

Mich-el, an aged chief of the Chippewas, 
addressed the Indians — ■ 

My Brethren, all, — I am about to speak a 
few words. I know you expect it. Be silent 
therefore, that the words of an old man may be 
heard. 

My Brethren, — You have heard the man 
who has just spoken. He is a war chief; — he 
is a Chippewa; — they and the Ottowas are one 
nation. We are all descended from the same 
stock — the Pottowattomies, the Chippewas, 
and the Ottowas, we consider ourselves as 
ONE. Why should we not always act in 
concert? 

To the Commissioners — 

My Father, — All my concern is for our 
young men, our women, and our children. 
They stand in need of many things which are 
necessary in our way of life. They look up to 
you for relief. Take pity on them. 

My Father, — Great changes have taken 
place. It is not now with us as it formerly was. 
Our lands are scarce of game, and afford us a 
scanty subsistence. It is often the lot of our 
people, to lie down at night, weary and hungry, 
and to shake for the want of clothing. But we 
are not of the race of people who complain. 
Though game is scarce upon our lands, there 
is still enough to keep us alive, and poor as 
they are, we feel loth to part with them. 
149 



$ictureg of ^Ilinot^ 



My Father, — There is another subject which 
I wish to mention to you. It is the factors. 
I was here when the first one arrived. I was 
overjoyed when I heard of his coming, because 
I thought we should now be supplied with 
goods on easier terms. We were disappointed. 
We found we could not buy goods of him 
cheaper than from other traders who visited 
our villages. This person who was so hard 
upon us was sent away; but still we find no 
alteration. 

My Father, — The people you allow to come 
here to trade with us, ought to be sent off 
the ground. They sell everything very dear. 
We do not wish any person sent here who 
sells so dear. Send us none but those who 
sell cheap. 

My Father, — We also want a blacksmith. 
I now take you by the hand. 

Governor Cass here stated to them — 

We are pleased with all we have heard; but 
our ears are tired of waiting to hear something 
favourable from the Pottowattomies of St. 
Joseph. We should be very unwilling to return 
home, and distribute all our goods to the Pot- 
towattomies of the Prairies, and to the Ottowas, 
who have already acceded to our offer. We 
should not like this. We wish that the villages 
on the St. Joseph should also be benefited by 
our liberality. 

The country we propose to purchase of you 
is this: — Beginning at the south end of lake 
150 



ijJenrp ftotoe £cJ)oolcraft 

Michigan, at the mouth of the Grand Kono- 
mick [Calumet], and running towards sunrise, 
until it strikes the lands that the Pottowattomies 
granted to their father at Fort Meigs; thence 
north, running along the line of Hull's treaty, 
to a point directly opposite the mouth of Grand 
River of lake Michigan; thence due west to 
the mouth of Grand River. In other words, 
all the lands between the Grand Konomick 
[Calumet] and Grand River, extending towards 
the rising of the sun until it strikes the old 
grants. 

We cannot make you an offer until we know 
what reservations you wish to make. We do 
not wish to pay you for a tract of land, half of 
which you may choose to retain in reservations. 
We have no objection that proper reservations 
should be made ; but we must first know their 
extent before we can make you an offer. Our 
price will be proportioned to the extent of the 
tract; and if you sell us but little, you must 
expect but little for it. 

We had rather that you would take one large 
piece than many small ones. It renders the 
tract less valuable to us, to have a great many 
little reservations upon it. Every little village 
and family cannot expect to have a particular 
reservation; and you will find it more advan- 
tageous to fix your reservations in one body. 
But we must first know where it is to be, and 
what is to be the extent of it, before we shall 
be prepared to make you an offer and fix the 
151 



$icture£ of ^Ilinoi^ 



annuities. You had better withdraw immedi- 
ately and determine this point. 

Metea now arose and said, with some per- 
turbation in his tone and manner, — 

My Father, — Look at the treatment we have 
received from the Chippewas and the Ottowas. 
They never gave us notice of what they were 
going to speak. If they had informed us pre- 
viously to the meeting of the council, of those 
sentiments and dispositions which they have 
just now made you acquainted with, you would 
not have heard what has passed from us. 

My Father, — I wish you now to wait until 
we can have some further consultation, and 
agree to act together. 

The commissioners now withdrew from the 
council, leaving the Indians to discuss the 
matter among themselves, and requesting that 
when they had come to a conclusion, they 
would send notice. 

EVENING COUNCIL OF THE 
TWENTY-SECOND 
It was late in the afternoon before the Pot- 
towattomies of St. Joseph announced their 
readiness to make their final reply. But it was 
soon evident that there was not a complete 
unanimity of sentiment among them, and that, 
in the interim, the leaders of this party had 
exerted their influence to induce the Pottowat- 
tomies of the Prairies, together with the Chip- 
pewas and Ottowas, to withhold their final 
152 



iijenrp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

assent. Metea renewed the discussion by 
saying, — My Brothers, warriors and war chiefs, 
village chiefs and young men, listen attentively 
to what the person who is about to speak shall 
say; be silent and serious, and make a general 
response. 

Koangee, a chief of mature age and a ven- 
erable aspect, now arose and placed himself in 
the attitude for speaking. There was a rigidity 
in this man's thin and sunken visage, which we 
thought peculiar, and he spoke in a somewhat 
broken and husky voice. 

My Father, — Since you heard from our 
brothers, the Chippewas and Ottowas, we have 
counselled together. It is now your wish to 
hear the sentiments of the three nations. I 
shall deliver them. 

My Father, — Sometimes the Indians have 
acted like children. When requested, they 
have signed away their lands without considera- 
tion. This has always made trouble in the 
nation, and blood has been spilt in consequence. 
We wish to avoid such foolish and bad conduct. 

My Father, — The last time we sat down in 
council together, we had not fully consulted 
each other; and perhaps you drew a wrong 
conclusion from what we said. We did not 
consent to your request. 

My Father, — In times past, when you have 

asked us for lands, we have freely sold them. 

At present, there are a number of our people 

opposed to selling, and we have found it very 

153 



pctureg of ^Ilinoig 



difficult to agree in mind. One point, in par- 
ticular, we differ much upon: it is the extent 
of the grant you request. 

My Father, — We give you one more proof 
of our friendship, by meetingyou in this council. 
You know our minds — we now take you by 
the hand. Look down upon us with compas- 
sion; and wish us well. 13 

Ottowaubeh immediately followed — 

Brother Pottowattomies, — Hearken to what 
I am going to say to you. Make haste, and 
decide! I do not say I want you to sell your 
lands; but we all wish to go home. We have 
been here long enough, and so has our Father. 
Take into consideration the long journey he 
has taken, and decide immediately. 

No other persons evincing a desire to speak 

13 In reporting this speech of Koangee, we omit a 
great part of it, owing to a want of confidence in the 
interpretation. It was satisfactorily ascertained by 
the commissioners, that to several of the sentences, 
a more favourable turn was given by the interpreter, 
than the original would justify, while the sense and 
meaning of some expressions were totally perverted. 
In consequence, several contradictions and inconsis- 
tencies appear in our original notes of this speech, 
and upon the whole, an assent to the sale appears in 
it, which the speaker did not intend. It appeared to 
be his policy not to use a decided tone pro or con, 
but by a doubting, reluctant, yet moderated tone, to 
prolong the discussions with a view to secure ulterior 
advantages. From the exhortation of Ottowaubeh, 
which followed, it is evident nothing absolutely deci- 
sive, had been expressed by Koangee, on the main 
question. 

154 



i^enrp ftotoe Schoolcraft 

on the question, and the hour growing late, 
Gov. Cass dismissed the Indians, with the fol- 
lowing remarks: — 

It is getting late, and I shall not detain you 
longer from your camps. Neither do I wish 
to hurry you to make a decision, without full 
deliberation. It is best for you this evening 
to consult upon what has been said, and let 
three or four of your principal chiefs come 
forward in the morning, and fix upon the reser- 
vations. You must not, however, expect to 
grant us a tract of land, and then take it all 
back in reservations. If you give a small tract, 
and claim large reservations, you must also 
expect a small amount of goods. The quantity 
of goods will depend upon the boundary. 

I have stated to you the line your Great 
Father wants. That is the line that must be 
in the treaty. We need talk no more about 
that. That is fixed. We shall talk only about 
the reservations. 

I want three or four Ottowas also to come 
forward in the morning, and fix upon the reser- 
vations they want. As soon as that is done, 
we shall be able to tell you what annuities, and 
what amount of goods you are to receive. 

We are in great hopes of concluding every- 
thing to-morrow. We wish to give out the 
goods and money, and return to our homes as 
soon as possible. I shall expect the chiefs to 
meet me punctually at an early hour in the 
morning. 

155 



pctureg of Illinois 



COUNCIL ON THE TWENTY-THIRD 

Metea. — 

My Father, — You are sent by our Great 
Father, the President, from a great way off; 
and however far you may be off, when you 
speak, we hear you. 

My Father, — The Great Spirit has made us 
Indians all of one colour, and given us a heart 
and sense ; and we give no offence, and wish 
to receive none. 

My Father, — You came from over the Great 
Hill, 14 and have travelled over our lands, there- 
fore, are sent by the President to buy them. 

My Father, — What has made you great, and 
raised you high in commission ? It is the lands 
you have bought of us. 

My Father, — You know that you are living 
on our lands, and that you draw your support 
from them — that you raise from them where- 
with to maintain and clothe yourselves. 

My Father, — You see that you come and 
settle among us, on our lands ; and what does 
that prove ? It proves that our lands are more 
valuable than yours. 

My Father, — You raise your cattle on our 
lands, and when they are fat you kill them, and 
cut the wood which grows on our lands to 
cook them. 

My Father, — Now you shall learn the object 
of the Indians in calling you to the council 
to-day. 

14 Meaning, probably, the Alleghany Mountains. 
156 



Iljenrp fHotoe Schoolcraft 

To the Indians: — 

Brothers, chiefs, and warriors, — Here is our 
Father, sent to us by the President of the United 
States. We have heard what our Father has 
to say. If we cannot agree to sell our lands, 
let us tell him so at once. Our lands were 
given to us by the Great Spirit, together with 
the game on them, and the streams, and the 
fish in them, for our subsistence. 

Brothers, Chippewas, and Ottowas, — Now 
come forward and speak your sentiments freely, 
as was formerly the case among our fathers. 

Brothers, Chippewas, and Ottowas, — We 
consider ourselves as one people, which you 
know, as also our Father here, who has travelled 
over our country. 

Brothers, Chippewas, and Ottowas, — Now 
I wish to hear what you have to say. 

To the Commissioners : — 

My Father, — As it is late, I shall do no more 
to-day; but to-morrow you shall hear our final 
council. 

My Father, — You are hungry by this time. 
You white men eat at certain fixed hours; we 
Indians, do what we have to do, and eat when 
it is convenient. 

My Father, — If I were to tell you all I have 
to say, it would take a day, therefore, I shall 
say no more at present. 

It was observed in reply: — 

We are contented with the Chippewas and 
Ottowas. We make our own bargain with 
i57 



$icture£ of STOnoig 



them. They are able to make their own bar- 
gain, and do not want any help. The Potto- 
wattomies also have men of sense enough 
among them, to make their own bargain, and 
do not want any help from the Chippewas and 
Ottowas. 

We hope to hear no more of calling on the 
Chippewas and Ottowas; but do your busi- 
ness among yourselves. Let each tribe make 
their own bargain. There will be no difficulty 
in determining this afternoon. It wants several 
hours of night, and we are anxious to close the 
treaty. We will now retire, and hope to hear 
from you after a while. 



At this stage of the negotiation I was con- 
fined to my room, by a sudden attack of bilious 
fever, and no further notes of the proceedings 
were taken. The discussion was prolonged 
several days, by the various propositions and 
modifications which were submitted on each 
side. The Indians evinced considerable dex- 
terity in settling the preliminaries and reser- 
vations, and manifested a determination to 
secure the best possible terms. The treaty, 
of which we present a ratified copy in our 
appendix, was formally signed on the twenty- 
ninth, and the amount of goods stipulated to 
be paid to them, immediately issued. 

By this treaty they relinquish their title to a 
tract of country, in the southern portion of the 
158 



i^enrp iiotoe Schoolcraft 

peninsula of Michigan, containing by estima- 
tion, upwards of five million acres. From this 
cession they reserve, as collective property, 
five several tracts; situated at distant points, 
containing in the aggregate twenty-two miles 
square, and as individual property, which the 
government stipulates to patent, to upward of 
thirty different persons, being all Indians by 
descent, various select tracts, containing from 
one half section to two sections of land. To 
preserve these grants in the families they are 
intended to benefit, the grantees and their heirs, 
are rendered incapable of leasing or selling 
them to any persons, without the special per- 
mission of the President of the United States. 
The government stipulates to pay to the 
Ottowa nation a perpetual annuity of one 
thousand dollars, in addition to which, they are 
to expend annually, for the term of ten years, 
the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, in the sup- 
port of a blacksmith, a teacher, and a person 
to instruct the Ottowas in agriculture, and in 
the purchase of cattle and farming utensils. 
To the Pottowattomie nation, they agree to 
pay an annuity of five thousand dollars in 
specie, for the term of twenty years, and to 
appropriate annually, for the term of fifteen 
years, the sum of one thousand dollars, to be 
expended in the support of a blacksmith and 
a teacher. The stipulation contained in the 
treaty of Greenville, relative to the right of 
the Indians to hunt upon the land ceded, while 

159 



$ictin:e£ of SWinoig 



it continues the property of the United States, 
is to be construed as extending to this pur- 
chase. And the Indians grant the privilege 
of making and using a road through their ter- 
ritories, from Detroit and Fort Wayne, respec- 
tively, to Chicago. Such are the principal 
stipulations of this treaty, by which the Indians 
cede a portion of their immense domains, which 
they but partially occupy, and cannot improve. 
These lands are now nearly destitute of game, 
particularly of the larger animals, and are 
every year becoming of less value to the hunt- 
er. By exchanging portions of them for 
merchandise and specie, for the services of 
mechanics and instructors, and for cattle and 
farming utensils, they secure the means of 
rendering the remaining parts valuable and 
productive, and of transmitting the blessings 
of instruction, and the advantages of agricul- 
ture to their posterity. 



160 



Appendix 
The Chicago Treaty of 182 1 



appenMj: 



Articles of a Treaty made and concluded at Chicago, 
in the State of Illinois, between Lewis Cass and Solomon 
Sibley, Commissioners of the United States, and the Otta- 
wa, Chippewa, and Pottawatomie, Nations of Indians. 



Article I. The Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pottawa- 
tamie, Nations of Indians cede to the United States 
all the Land comprehended within the following 
boundaries: Beginning at a point on the south bank 
of the river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, near the 
Pare aux Vaches, due north from Rum's Village, and 
running thence south to a line drawn due east from 
the southern extreme of Lake Michigan, thence with 
the said line east to the Tract ceded by the Potta- 
watamies to the United States by the Treaty of Fort 
Meigs in 1817, if the said line should strike the said 
Tract, but if the said line should pass north of the 
said Tract then such line shall be continued until it 
strikes the western boundary of the Tract ceded to 
the United States by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807, 
and from the termination of the said line, following 
the boundaries of former cessions, to the main branch 
of the Grand River of Lake Michigan, should any of 
the said lines cross the said River, but if none of the 
said lines should cross the said River, then to a point 
due east of the source of the said main branch of the 
said River, and from such point due west to the source 
of the said principal branch, and from the crossing 
of the said River, or from the source thereof, as the 
case may be, down the said River, on the north bank 
thereof, to the mouth; thence following the shore of 
Lake Michigan to the south bank of the said river 
St. Joseph, at the mouth thereof, and thence with the 
said south bank to the place of beginning. 

163 



appendix 



Art. 2. From the cession aforesaid, there shall 
be reserved, for the use of Indians the following 
Tracts : 

One tract at Mang-ach-qua Village on the river 
Peble, of six miles square. 

One tract at Mick-ke-saw-be, of six miles square. 

One tract at the village of Na-to-wa-se-pe, of four 
miles square. 

One tract at the village of Prairie Ronde, of three 
miles square. 

One tract at the village of Match-e-be-narh-she- 
wish, at the head of the Kekalamazoo river. 

Art. 3. There shall be granted by the United 
States to each of the following persons, being all 
Indians by descent, and to their heirs, the following 
Tracts of Land : 

To John Burnet, two sections of land. 

To James Burnet, Abraham Burnet, Rebecca Bur- 
net, and Nancy Burnet, each one section of land; 
which said John, James, Abraham, Rebecca, and 
Nancy are children of Kaw-kee-me, sister of Top-ni- 
be, principal chief of the Pottawatamie nation. 

The land granted to the persons immediately pre- 
ceding, shall begin on the north bank of the river St. 
Joseph, about two miles from the mouth, and shall 
extend up and back from the said river for quantity. 

To John B. La Lime, son of Noke-no-qua, one- 
half of a section of land, adjoining the tract before 
granted, and on the upper side thereof. 

To Jean B. Chandonai, son of Chip-pe-wa-qua, 
two sections of land, on the river St. Joseph, above 
and adjoining the tract granted to J. B. La Lime. 

To Joseph Daze, son of Chip-pe-wa-qua, one sec- 
tion of land above and adjoining the tract granted to 
Jean B. Chandonai. 

To Monguago, one-half of a section of land, at 
Mish-she-wa-ko-kink. 

To Pierre Moran or Peeresh, a Pottawatamie Chief, 
one section of land, and to his children two sections 
of land, at the mouth of the Elk-heart River. 
164 



appetite 



To Pierre Le Clerc, son of Moi-qua, one section 
of land on the Elk-heart river, above and adjoining 
the tract granted to Moran and his children. 

The section of land granted by the Treaty of St. 
Mary's, in 1818, to Peeresh or Perig, shall be granted 
to Jean B. Cicot, son of Pe-say-quot, sister of the said 
Peeresh, it having been so intended at the execution 
of the said Treaty. 

To O-she-ak-ke-be or Benac, one-half of a section 
of land on the north side of the Elk-heart river, where 
the road from Chicago to Fort Wayne first crosses 
the said river. 

To Me-naw-che, a Pottawatamie woman, one-half 
of a section of land on the eastern bank of the St. 
Joseph, where the road from Detroit to Chicago first 
crosses the said river. 

To Theresa Chandler orTo-e-ak-qui, a Pottawat- 
amie woman, and to her daughter Betsey Fisher, 
one section of land on the south side of the Grand 
River, opposite to the Spruce Swamp. 

To Charles Beaubien and Medart Beaubien, sons 
of Man-na-ben-a-qua, each one-half of a section of 
land near the village of Ke-wi-go-shkeem, on the 
Washtenaw River. 

To Antoine Roland, son of I-gat-pat-a-wat-a-mie- 
qua, one-half of a section of land adjoining and below 
the tract granted to Pierre Moran. 

To William Knaggs or Was-es-kuk-son, son of 
Ches-qua, one-half of a section of land adjoining and 
below the tract granted to Antoine Roland. 

To Madeline Bertrand, wife of Joseph Bertrand, 
a Pottawatamie woman, one section of land at the 
Pare aux Vaches, on the north side of the river St. 
Joseph. 

To Joseph Bertrand, junior, Benjamin Bertrand, 
Laurent Bertrand, Theresa Bertrand, and Amable 
Bertrand, children of the said Madeline Bertrand, 
each one-half of a section of land at the portage of 
the Kankakee River. 

To John Riley, son of Me-naw-cum-a-go-quoi, one 

165 



appen&ij; 



section of land, at the mouth of the river Au Foin, 
on the Grand River, and extending up the said River. 

To Peter Riley, the son of Me-naw-cum-a-go-qua, 
one section of land, at the mouth of the river Au Foin, 
on the Grand River, and extending down the said 
river. 

To Jean B. Le Clerc, son of Moi-qua, one-half of 
a section of land, above and adjoining the tract 
granted to Pierre Le Clerc. 

To Joseph La Framboise, son of Shaw-we-no-qua, 
one section of land upon the south side of the river 
St. Joseph, and adjoining on the upper side the land 
ceded to the United States, which said section is also 
ceded to the United States. 

The Tracts of Land herein stipulated to be granted, 
shall never be leased or conveyed by the grantees or 
their heirs to any persons whatever, without the per- 
mission of the President of the United States. And 
such tracts shall be located after the said cession is 
surveyed, and in conformity with such surveys as 
near as may be, and in such manner as the President 
may direct. 

Art. 4. In consideration of the cession aforesaid, 
the United States engage to pay to the Ottawa 
nation, one thousand dollars in specie annually for- 
ever, and also to appropriate annually, for the term 
of ten years, the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, to 
be expended as the President may direct, in the sup- 
port of a Blacksmith, of a Teacher, and of a person 
to instruct the Ottawas in agriculture, and in the pur- 
chase of cattle and farming utensils. And the United 
States also engage to pay to the Pottawatamie nation 
five thousand dollars in specie, annually, for the term 
of twenty years, and also to appropriate annually, for 
the term of fifteen years, the sum of one thousand 
dollars, to be expended as the President may direct, 
in the support of a Blacksmith and a Teacher. And 
one mile square shall be selected, under the direction 
of the President, on the north side of the Grand 
River, and one mile square on the south side of the 
166 



appen&ijt: 



St. Joseph, and within the Indian lands not ceded, 
upon which the blacksmiths and teachers employed 
for the said tribes, respectively, shall reside. 

Art. 5. The stipulation contained in the treaty of 
Greenville, relative to the right of the Indians to hunt 
upon the land ceded while it continues the property 
of the United States, shall apply to this treaty. 

Art. 6. The United States shall have the privilege 
of making and using a road through the Indian 
country, from Detroit and Fort Wayne, respectively, 
to Chicago. 

Art. 7. This Treaty shall take effect and be oblig- 
atory on the contracting parties, so soon as the 
same shall be ratified by the President of the United 
States, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate thereof. 

In testimony whereof, the said Lewis Cass and Sol- 
omon Sibley, commissioners as aforesaid, and the 
Chiefs and Warriors of the said Ottawa, Chip- 
pewa, and Pottawatamie nations, have hereunto 
set their hands, at Chicago aforesaid, this 29th day 
of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and twenty-one. 

LEWIS CASS, 
SOLOMON SIBLEY. 

Ottawas. Pottawatamies. 

Kewagoushcum, To-pen-ne-bee, 

Nokawjegaun, Mee-te-ay, 

Kee-o-to-aw-be, Chee-banse, 

Ket-che-me-chi-na-waw, Loui-son, 
Ep-pe-san-se, Wee-saw, 

Kay-nee-wee, Kee-po-taw, 

Mo-a-put-to, Shay-auk-ke-bee , 

Mat-che-pee-na-che-wish. Scho-mang, 

Waw-we-uck-ke-meck, 
Chippewas. Nay-ou-chee-mon, 

Met-tay-waw, Kon-gee, 

Mich-el. Shee-shaw-gan, 

167 



&ppen&i£ 



Aysh-cam, 

Meek-say-mank, 

May-ten-way, 

Shaw-wen-ne-me-tay, 

Francois, 

Mauk-see, 

Way-me-go, 

Man-daw-min, 

Quay-guee, 

Aa-pen-naw-bee, 

Mat-cha-wee-yaas, 

Mat-cha-pag-gish, 

Mongaw, 

Pug-gay-gaus, 

Ses-cobe-mesh, 

Chee-gwa-mack-gwa-go 

Waw-seb-baw, 

Pee-chee-co, 

Quoi-quoi-taw, 

Pe-an-nish, 

Wy-ne-maig, 

O-nuck-ke-meck, 



Ka-way-sin, 

A-meck-kose, 

Os-see-meet, 

Shaw-ko-to, 

No- shay-we-quat , 

Mee-gwun, 

Mesh-she-ke-ten-now, 

Kee-no-to-go, 

Wa-baw-nee-she, 

Shaw-waw-nay-see, 

Atch-wee-muck-quee, 

Pish-she-baw-gay, 

Waw-ba-saye, 

Meg-ges-seese, 

Say-gaw-koo-nuck, 

Shaw-way-no, 

Shee-shaw-gun, 

To-to-mee, 

Ash-kee-wee, 

Shay-auk-ke-bee 

Aw-be-tone. 



In presence of Alex. Wolcott, jr. Indian Agent. 
Jno. R. Williams, Adjt. Gen. M. Ma. G. Godfroy, 
Indian Agent. W. Knaggs, Indian Agent. Jacob 
Visger. Henry I. Hunt. H. Phillips, Paymr. U. S. 
Army. R. Montgomery. Jacob B.Varnum, U. S. 
Factor. John B. Beaubien. Conrad Ten Eyck. 
J. Whippley. George Miles, jun. Henry Connor. 
Jas. Barnerd. John Kenzie, Sub-Agent. 

To the Indian names are subjoined marks. 

The tract reserved at the village of Match-e-be- 
nash-she-wish, at the head of the Ke-kal-i-ma-zoo 
river, was by agreement to be three miles square. The 
extent of the reservation was accidentally omitted. 

LEWIS CASS, 
SOLOMON SIBLEY. 
168 



Index 



%nm 



Aa-pen-naw-bee, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Abernathy, Dr. John, English surgeon, 47. 
Agriculture, effect on soil, 4; need of capital for 22, 25; 

methods, 56, 67; decline of, 50; along the Illinois 

River, 97; among Indians, 130, 159, 160. See also 

Soils. 
Ague. See Health. , 
Albion (111.), an English settlement, 41, 49, 51, 60, 

62; county seat, 44, 47; visited, 45; described, 46-48; 

discord at, 48-49. 
Alleghany Mountains, referred to by Indians, 156. 
A-meck-kose, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Amequon River. See Spoon River. 
American Bottom, described, 78; fertility of, 79. 
American traits, 18-19, 36, 37. See also Frontiersmen. 
Ash-kee-wee, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Atch-wee-muck-quee, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Au Foin River, in Michigan, 166. 
Au Sable Creek, in northern Illinois, 115. 
Aw-be-tone, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Ayer Manuscript Collection, XIV. 
Aysh-cam, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Backwoodsmen. See Frontiersmen. 
Barnerd, James, at Chicago treaty, 168. 
Bears, in Illinois, 6, 7, 12, 13, 31, 36, 70; dread of, 30; 

habits of, 32; hunted, 34. 
Beaubien, Charles, cession to, 165. 
Beaubien, John B., at Chicago treaty, 168. 
Beaubien, Medart, cession to, 165. 
Beaver, in Illinois, XIII, 31; scarcity of, 98-99. 
Beck, Lewis C, Gazetteer, cited, 116. 
Beds, in frontier taverns, 42-43, 45, 70. 
Beef, exported, 47; cheap, 97. See also Cattle. 
Benac. See O-she-ak-ke-be. 
171 



Stofceje 



Bertrand, Amable, cession to, 165. 

Bertrand, Benjamin, cession to, 165. 

Bertrand, Joseph, at Chicago treaty, 141; Indian 

wife of, 165. 
Bertrand, Joseph Junior, cession to, 165. 
Bertrand, Laurent, cession to, 165. 
Bertrand, Madeline, cession to, 165. 
Bertrand, Theresa, cession to, 165. 
Big Prairie, in eastern Illinois, 3, 4, 6. 
Big Wabash River. See Wabash River. 
Birkbeck, Morris, Illinois settler, xvi-xviii; settlement 

visited, 41, 45-49; losses, 50-51; opposes slavery, 

60; Notes on a Journey, etc., xvii, xviii, 1-37; Letters 
from Illinois, xviii, 50. 
Blacksmiths, desired by Indians, 150, 159; granted, 

166-67. 
Blane, William Newnham. An Excursion through the 

United States and Canada, xviii-xix, 41-81. 
Blazing trees, described, 64. 
Bon Pas River, bridged, 44-45. 
Bounty lands. See Lands. 
Bridges, in eastern Illinois, 45. 
Brindley, — , engineer, 119. 
Buck, Solon J., Illinois in 18 18, xv. 
Buffalo, in Illinois, xiii, 111. 
Buffalo fish, in Illinois River, 98. 
Buffalo Rock, on Illinois River, 109. 
Burnet, Abraham, land grant to, 164. 
Burnet, James, land grant to, 164. 
Burnet, John, at Chicago treaty, 140; land grant to, 

164. 
Burnet, Nancy, land grant to, 164. 
Burnet, Rebecca, land grant to, 164. 
Bustards, in Illinois, xiii. 
Butter, price of, 27. 
Cabins, of frontiersmen, 9-10, 13, 51, 97; described, 

68-69. 
Cactus, in Illinois, 107. 
Calumet River, proposed diversion of, 120; mouth of, 

151- 

172 



^Fntiej: 






Canada, advantages for emigrants, 51. 

Canals, Calumet, 120; Chicago to Illinois, 88, 117-20. 

Capital, needed by emigrants, 22-26, 28; difficulty of 

increasing, 50. 
Carlyle (111.), 74. 
Cass, Lewis, Indian superintendent, xii, xix, 147; 

treaty commissioner, xx, 122-68; speeches, 123- 

24, 129-32, 138-41, 142-43, 150-52, 155- 
Catamounts. See Wildcats. 
Catfish, in Illinois River, 98. 
Cat's Ferry, on the Little Wabash, 60, 64, 69. 
Cattle, prices of, 26; care of, 36, 97; food for, 98; 

market for, 89; drove of, 44; cross ford, 63; killed 

in fires, 77. See also Beef. 
Chandler, Theresa. See Schindler. 
Chandonai, Jean B., land grant to, 164. 
Charlevoix, Pierre Francois Xavier, Illinois traveler, 

87. 
Chee-banse, Pottawatomi chief, 167. 
Chee-gwa-mack-gwa-go, Pottawatomi chief, 165. 
Cheese, price of, 27. 
Ches-qua, Indian woman, 165. 
Chicago, site, xii, 102, 104; as a market, 89; harbor at, 

119-21; road to, 160, 165, 167; canal from, 88, 

1 1 7-1 8; travelers at, xiv, xix, xxi, 122-60; Indian 

treaty at, xx, 103, 108, 121-68. 
Chicago River, portage from, 117; harbor at, 120-21; 

south fork of, 122; treaty bower on, 122. 
Chippewa Indians, origin of, 146, 149, 157; land ces- 
sion, 147; speeches of, 148-49; treaty with 122, 

163-68; chiefs signed, 167. 
Chip-pe-wa-qua, Indian woman, 164. 
Cicot, Jean B., cession to, 165. 
Cincinnati (Ohio), route via, xviii, 30. 
Clark, Gen. William, governor of Missouri, 80. 
Climate of Illinois, 32-33, 85, 87, 92, no, 112; frosts, 

88, 96. See also Health. 
Coal, in eastern Illinois, 15; on Illinois River, no. 
Communism, in America, 20-25. 
Connor, Henry, at Chicago treaty, 142, 168. 

173 



^tfotX 



Conventionalists, irl Illinois, 59-60. 

Corn, prices of 25, 26, 27, 88; exported, 47; chief 

staple, 56, 97; standing stalks of, 61, 79; crops, 88. 
Cotton, culture of, 56. 
Cottonwood trees, in Illinois, 85. 
Dagley, — , Illinois pioneer, 5. 
Daze, Joseph, land grant to, 164. 
Deer, in Illinois, xiii, 69, 92, 98, 111, 114; price of, 27; 

hunted, 62; bleached bones of, 77. 
Des Plaines River, unites with Kankakee, 113, 118; 

mound on, 115; ford on, 117, 121; portage to, 

117-19. 
Detroit, capital of Michigan Territory xn; port, 

xiii, xx, road from, 160, 167; Indian treaty at, 142, 

145, 163; Indian payment, 146, 147. 
Domestic service in America, 36, 37. 
Ducks, in Illinois, xiii; several varieties of, 98. 
Eagles, in Illinois, 72. 
Edwards County, English settlement in, xvi; county 

seat of, 44. 
Eggs, price of, 27. 
Elk, in Illinois, xiii, in. 
Elkhart River, cession on, 164-65. 
Emigrants, from Europe, 28; advice for, 28, 29, 51-58, 

112. 
England, voyage from, xviii; emigrants from, 28, 

51-57; ideas of America in, 29, 30, 35; agricultural 

distress in, 53; game laws, 62. See also Great 

Britain. 
"English Settlement," in Illinois, xvi-xix; described, 

45-50. 
Englishmen, in Illinois, xvi-xix, 1-81; disputes among, 

48-49; homesickness among, 52; favor slavery in 

Illinois, 60. 
English Prairie, site, 46. 
Ep-pe-san-se, Ottawa chief, 167. 
Erie Canal, 119. 
Erie Lake, route via, xx. 
Exports, from Illinois, 47. 
Factory system, of Indian trade, 150. 

174 



Softer ' 

Fences, on the prairies, 16, 18. 

Ferry boats, frozen in, 44. 

Fiddles, methods of stringing, 10. 

Fighting, on the frontier, 49~5°- 

Fires, on prairie, described, 74 _ 77» 

Fish, abundance of, 98, 100. 

Fisher, Mrs. Elizabeth, cession to, 165. 

Fitch, — , Illinois tavern keeper, 70, 71. 

Flatboats, on the Wabash, 44; to export produce, 

47 * 
Flour, price of, 27; exported, 47. 

Flower, George, Illinois settler, xvi, xvn, n, 351 
buys land, 14; home visited, 45 ; grievances against, 
48; opposes slavery, 60. 

Food, of frontiersmen, 8, 69, 97. See also the several 
articles. 

Fordham, Elias P., early traveler, xv. 

Forests, in prairie region, 46, 63, 65, 70, 95, 112, 113; 
on Illinois River, 93; fires in, 74~755 cultivation of, 
114; destruction of, 69; trees blazed, 64. 

Fort Clark, described, 92; site, 95, 101, 105. 

Fort Crevecoeur, at Peoria, 93; site, 102. ^ 

Fort Dearborn, rebuilt, xii; supplies for, xiii. 

Fort Meigs, treaty at, 151. 

Fort St. Louis, location, 93. 

Fort Wayne, in War of 181 2, 134; road from, 160, 
165, 167. 

"Fortunes of Nigel," publication of, 80-81, 

Fowls, price of, 27; captured by wolves, 73. 

Fox and Sauk Indians, habitat, 129. 

Fox River, in eastern Illinois, 63, no. 

Fox Settlement, in eastern Illinois, 6. 

Franchise, in Illinois, 55. 

Francois, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

Franklin, Benjamin, unappreciated in America, 19. 

French, in Illinois, xii-xiv, 93, 105; mode of living, 
78-79; at St. Louis, 79-81; early discoverers, 102, 
no, 144; See also Missions. 

Frontiersmen, characteristics, xv, 4, 7, 8, 10, 13, 33 _ 3S» 
64, 66-68; privations of, 6, 51-54; food* 8, 69, 97: 
175 



^xfotx 



cabins, 9-10, 13, 51, 68-69; lack of physicians 
among, 47-48; fighting among, 49-50; marksman- 
ship, 61-62; honesty, 65; losses from fires, 75. 

Fur trade, in Illinois, xiii, 66, 117; at St. Louis, 80; 
among Ottawa Indians, 147; factory system for, 
150; articles for, 104. 

Furniture, in frontier cabins, 9, 42-43. See also Beds. 

Garfish, in Illinois River, 98. 

Geology, of Illinois River, 100-102, 105. 

Germans, communistic settlement of, 20; peasants, 
conditions among, 57. 

Godfroy, G., at Chicago treaty, 142, 168. 

Goldsmith, Oliver, cited, 54. 

Grand Prairie, in central Illinois, 71-73. 

Grand River, in Michigan, xx, 144, 151, 163, 165. 

Grazing, lands for, 88. 

Great Britain, pensions Indians, 134; treatment of 
Indians, 145. See also England. 

Great Lakes, route via, xix; posts on, 89. 

Greeley, Horace, describes Illinois, xiv. 

Green Bay, stone on, 121; Indian tribe on, 129. 

Greenville, treaty of, 145, 159, 167. 

Grouse. See Prairie chickens. 

Hackley, Capt. James, at Chicago treaty, 142. 

Hares, along Illinois River, 98. 

Harmony (Ind.), visited, xix, 3, 19, 41, 52, quarry 
near, 14; described, 20-25; sketch of, 20. 

Hawks, in Illinois, 72. 

Hay, price of, 27. 

Health, in Illinois, 4, 44, 47, 54, 78; in Missouri, 80; 
during summer, 85-86, 95. 

Highlanders. See Scotch. 

Hogs, roam at large, 70-71; food for, 98; market for, 
89; captured by wild animals, 31, 36, 73; become 
wild, 71; drove of, 41. See also Pork. 

Honey, in Illinois woods, 97. 

Horse flies, discomfort from, 73. 

Horses, prices of, 26; for traveling, 29, 65, 108, no; 
no shelter for, 68; insect pests afflict, 73; killed in 
prairie fires, 77. 

176 



^ttotx 



Hospitality, of frontiersmen, 6, 42, 64, 67, 69. 

Houston, — , Illinois pioneer, 72, 74. 

Hubbard, Gurdon S., cited, 92. 

Hudson Bay, tributary of, 99. 

Hull, General William, Indian treaty commissioner, 

142, 151. 
Hunt, Henry I., at Chicago treaty, 168. 
Hunters, of frontier, characterized, 66-67; describe 

prairie fires, 76-77. 
Huron Lake, portage to, 15. 
I-gat-pat-a-wat-a-mie-qua, Indian woman, 165. 
Illinois, during French regime, xiii-xiv, fur trade in, 

xiii, land prices, 14, 16, 28, 35; franchise, 55; 

slavery, 58-60; legislature, 59; in 1818, xi-xiii, 

xv-xviii; centennial of, ix, x. See also Climate, 

Forests, Health, Soils, etc. 
Illinois Indians, hostilities with, 106. 
Illinois River, voyage on, xiii, xx-xxi, 85-113; width, 

95-96, 101; rapids in, 105, 117-19; canal to, 117-20; 

Indians on, 129. 
Immigrants. See Emigrants. 
Improvements, described, 17-18. 
Indian agency, at Chicago, xii; 168; at Mackinac, xix; 

at Sault Ste. Marie, xix-xx, 98. 
Indian Corn. See Corn. 
Indian reservations, at Chicago treaty, 151-52, 155, 

159, 164-66. 
Indian trails, to Chicago, xx. See also Roads. 
Indiana, boundary, xx; woods of, 4, 30; communistic 

settlement in, 20; travels in, 41-43; scarcity of 

money in, 63. 
Indians, characterized, 10; physical traits, 104, 134; 

fondness for liquor, 138-40; religious ideas, 125, 

128, 148; agriculture among, 130; village sites, 109; 

village described, 103-104; attachment to lands, 

126-28, 133, 135, 142, 156; fishing methods, 100; 

war methods, 76, 106; fire plains, 70; burn fort, 92; 

fur trade with, 98-99; missions for, 103, 112; treaty 

with, xx, 103, 121-60; effect of white contact, 109; 

dread of, 30; treatment by whites, xv, 127, 130-31. 
177 



Indolence, of frontiersmen, 10, n, 18; caused by 

slavery, 36. 
Interpreters, at Indian treaty, 154. 
Irish, emigration of, 57-58. 
James River, route via, 30. 
Jesuit missionaries, in Illinois, 103, 109. 
Joliet Lake, described, 116; length, 118. 
Jolliet, Louis, explored Illinois, 102. 
Joutel, Henri, French explorer, xiii. 
Kalamazoo River, Indian village on, 164, 168. 
Kankakee River, unites with Des Plaines River, 113, 

118; portage to source, 165. 
Kaskaskia (111.), in 1818, xi, xii. 
Kaskaskia Indians, village site, 109. 
Kaskaskia River, village on, 74. 
Ka-way-sin, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Kaw-kee-me, Pottawatomi woman, 164. 
Kay-nee-wee, Ottawa chief, 167. 
Kee-no-to-go, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Kee-o-to-aw-be, Ottawa chief, 167. 
Kee-po-taw, Pottawatomi chief, 167. 
Kee-way-goosh-kum, Ottawa chief, speech, 144-48; 

sketch, 144; signs treaty, 167. 
Kekalamazoo River. See Kalamazoo River. 
Kentucky, mail from, 78. 
Kenzie. See Kinzie. 

Kerry County (Ireland), conditions in, 57. 
Ket-che-me-chi-na-waw, Ottawa chief, 167. 
Ke-wa-goush-cum. See Kee-way-goosh-kum. 
Ke-wi-go-shkeem, Indian village, 165. 
Kickapoo Rapids, in Illinois River, 1 18-19. 
Kinzie, John, Indian agent, 168; speech, 141. 
Knaggs, William, cession to, 165; Indian agent, 168. 
Ko-an-gee, Pottawatomi chief, speech, 153-54; signs 

treaty, 167. 
Konomic River. See Calumet River. 
La Charbonniere, on Illinois River, no. 
La Framboise, Joseph, cession to, 166. 
Lagoons, on Illinois River, 90. 
Lalime, John B., cession to, 164. 
178 



^ntiejc 



Land office, entries in, n, 14. 

Lands, price of, 14, 16, 28, 35; unsaleable, 54, 58; 
surveys of, 16; advantages of owning, 54-55; 
bounty for soldiers, 85, 89; ceded by Indians, 
122-68. 
La Salle, Robert Cavelier de, in Illinois, xiv, 93, 102. 
La Ville de Maillet. See Peoria. 
Lebanon (Ohio), Shakers at, 23. 
Le Clerc, Jean B., cession to, 166. 
Le Clerc, Pierre, cession to, 165-66. 
Le Rocher, on Illinois River, 105-106, 109. 
Lewis (Louis), Meriwether, expedition of, 80. 
Limestone, need of, 12, 15; stratum of, 116. 
Lindley, Harlow, Indiana as Seen by Early Travelers, 

20. 
Liquor. See Whiskey. 

Little Wabash River, explored, 6, n; land purchases 
on, 14, 15; navigation of, 15; watershed, 46; ferry 
over, 60, 69; flats of, 69. 
Log cabins. See Cabins. 
London (Eng.), emigrants from, 51. 
Long, Stephen A., scientific expedition, xiv. 

Louis. See Lewis. 

Louisiana, a French colony, 79. 

Loui-son, Pottawatomi chief, 167. 

Louisville (Ky.), 33, 43. 

Loyola, Ignacio de, disciples of, 103. 

Mackinac, fur trade entrepot, xiii; Indian agent at, 
xix, 98; Indian site, 146. 

Mail. See Post carriers. 

Man-daw-nim, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

Mang-ach-qua, Indian village, 164. 

Manitou Islands, in Lake Michigan, 120. 

Man-na-ben-a-qua, Indian woman, 165. 

Marden (England), emigrant from, 35. 

Markets, for Illinois produce, 36, 47, 88-89, 118. 

Marquette, Father Jacques, explores Illinois, xiii. 

Mast, hogs subsist on, 70; described, 71. 

Mat-cha-pag-gish, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

Mat-cha-wee-yaas, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
179 



^nbtx 



Match-e-be-narh-she-wish, Indian village, 164, 168. 
Mat-che-pee-na-che-wish, Ottawa chief, 167. 
Mauk-see, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Maumee River (Miami of the Lakes), route via, xx; 

portage to, 15; headwaters of, 129; Indians on, 146. 
Mauvaisterre Creek, tributary of Illinois River, 87, 89. 
May- ten- way, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Meat, excessive use of, 79. 
Mee-gwun, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Meek-say-mank, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Mee-te-ay. See Me-te-a. 
Meg-ges-seese, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Me-naw-che, cession to, 165. 
Me-naw-cum-a-go-quoi, Indian woman, 165-66. 
Menominee Indians, habitat, 129. 
Mesh-she-ke-ten-now, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Me-taa-wau (Met-tay-waw) , Chippewa chief, speech, 

148-49; signs treaty, 167. 
Me-te-a (Mee-te-ay), Pottawatomi chief, speeches, 

124-28, 134-38, 152-53, 156-57; complimented, 

131, 143; signs treaty, 167; sketch of, i34~35- 
Met-tay-waw. See Me-taa-wau. 
Mexico, 70, 77. 

Miami of the Lakes. See Maumee River. 
Michel, Chippewa chief, speech, 149; signs treaty, 167. 
Michigan, Indian cession of, xx, 122-68; agriculture 

in, 89. 
Michigan Lake, 71, 117; harbor on, 120; southern end 

of, 151; shipwreck on, 144; Indian lands on, 124, 129. 
Michilimackinac. See Mackinac. 
Mick-ke-saw-be, Indian site, 164. 
Miles Jr., George, at Chicago treaty, 168. 
Military tract, in Illinois, 85, 89. 
Militia, muster of, 3-4. 
Milk, price of, 27. 
Mills (grist), scarcity of, 6. 
Milwaukee (Milwacky), Indians at, 129. 
Mineralogy, of Illinois River, 101-102. 
Mish-she-wa-ko-kink, Indian site, 164. 
Missions, in Illinois, 103, 109. 
180 



ftt&ej: 



Mississippi River, mouth, 89; bottom, 78-79; affluents, 
95; erosion of, xii, 78; navigation of, t>2>\ voyage 
on, xix, 47; communication with, 93; expansion of, 
100; villages on, 80; as a boundary, 70. 

Mississippi Valley, towns in, xii, 79. 

Missouri, travels in, 43, 60; prairie fires, 76-77; part of 
Louisiana province, 79. 

Missouri River, new villages on, 80; mouth of, 85. 

Mo-a-put-to, Ottawa chief, 167. 

Moi-qua, Indian woman, 165-66. 

Money, substitutes for, 63. 

Mon-gaw, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

Mon-gua-go, cession to, 164. 

Montgomery, R., at Chicago treaty, 168. 

Moran, Pierre (Peeresh), land grant to, 164-65. 

Mosquitoes, trials from, 29, 30, 73, 90, 116. 

Mount Joliet, described, n 5-16; portage to, 117. 

Muskrats, in Illinois, 98. 

Napoleon, in exile, 81. 

National Road, traveler on, xix. 

Na-to-wa-se-pe, Indian village, 164. 

Nay-ou-chee-mon, Pottawatomi chief, 167. 

New England elements, in Illinois, xv, 59; character- 
istics of, 63. 

New Harmony (Ind.). See Harmony. 

New Orleans, as a port, S3^ 47- 

New York (State), advantages for emigrants, 51, 57; 
mosquitoes in, 73. 

New York City, yellow fever in, xix. 

Newspapers, pioneer, 67. 

No-kaw-je-gaun, Ottawa chief, 167. 

Noke-no-qua, Indian woman, 164. 

No-shay- we-quat, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

Oaks, in Illinois, 90, n 5-16. 

Oats, price of, 27; culture of, 56. 

Ohio, land cession in, 127; agriculture, 89; Shaker 
community, 23; visit to, 22, 30. 

Ohio River, bed of, 14; navigation, $3, 36; floods in, 
xi, 13; route via, xx, 43, 47; as a boundary, 71; type 
of settlers on, 19. 

181 



^nbtx 



O'Meara, Barry E. , Memoirs of the Military and Political 

Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 81. 
O-nuck-ke-meck, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
O-she-ak-ke-be, cession to, 165. 
Os-see-meet, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Ottawa Indians, origin of, 146, 149, 157; arrive at 

Chicago, 143; speeches, 143-48; reservations for, 

155; annuity, 159; treaty with, 122, 163-68. 
Otter, in Illinois, 98. 

Ot-to-wau-beh, Pottawatomi chief, speech, 154. 
Palmyra (111.), described, 44. 
Panthers, dread of, 30. 
Pare aux Vaches, Indian site, 163, 165. 
Parroquets, in Illinois, xiii. 
Pe-an-nish, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Peble River, village on, 164. 
Pee-chee-co, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Peeresh. See Moran, Pierre. 
Peerish, a guide, 109. 

Pennsylvania, Germans in, 20, 23; emigrants, 28, 51, 57. 
Peoria (111.), in 1818, xiii, xv; in 1821, 93. 
Peoria Lake, on the Illinois, 89, 92-94; expansion of 

river, 96; described, 101-102; fort on, 102. 
Perthshire (Scotland), emigrants from, 42. 
Pe-say-quot, Indian woman, 165. 
Philadelphia, as a port, 28. 
Phillips, H., United States paymaster, 168. 
Physicians, in the West, 47-48. 
Pigeons, flight of, 71. 
Pioneers. See Frontiersmen. 
"Pioneers," an American novel, 48. 
Pish-she-baw-gay, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Pittsburgh (Pa.), route via, xviii, 30; price of freight 

to, 28. 
Pork, exported, 47; cheap, 97. See also Hogs. 
Portages, on the Wabash, 15; on Illinois River, 105, 

117; St. Joseph to Kankakee, 165. 
Post carriers, in early Illinois, 78. 
Potatoes, crops of, 88, 97. 

Pottawatomi Indians, origin of, 146, 149, 157; branches 
182 



fnfcejc 



of, 150, 152; relations with other tribes, 147; battle 

with, 106; village of, 103-104; boundaries, 129; act as 

guides, 108; treaty with, xx, 104, 122-68. 
Prairie chickens, hunted, 61-62; 72; along Illinois 

River, 98, 114. 
Prairie Ronde, village on, 164. 
Prairies, in eastern Illinois, 3, 4, 6, 15-16, 46, 69; in 

western Illinois; 87, 93, 95; fertility of, 61, 70; 

origin of, 69-70; description of, 71-72, 112; fire 

on, 74-77- 
Prices, of agricultural products, 27; cattle, 26; corn, 

25, 88; land, 14, 16, 28, 35; peltry, 63; salt, 27; 

taverns, 27; traveling, 28, 55; decline of, 50. 
Prickly pears. See Cactus. 
Princeton (Ind.), English travelers at, n, 32-33, 41; 

described, 33. 
Pug-gay-gaus, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Quay-quee, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Quincy (111.), xi. 

Quoi-quoi-taw, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Raccoons, hunted, 8, 10; as peltry, 98; price of skins, 63. 
"Rambler," cited, no. 

Rappe, Frederick, founder of Harmony, 20, 21, 23. 
Rattlesnakes, dangers from, 29, 30. 
Reddick's Deposit, on Illinois River, 108. 
Reservations. See Indian reservations. 
Richmond (Va.), route via, xviii. 
Riley, John, cession to, 165. 
Riley, Peter, cession to, 166. 
Roads, in eastern Illinois, 44, 60, 69-70, 72, 74; to 

Chicago, 160, 165, 167. See also Indian trails. 
Rock Fort. See Le Rocher. 
Rock Fort Rapids, in Illinois River, 119. 
Roland, Antoine, cession to, 165. 
Rum's Village, Indian site, 163. 
Sac Indians. See Fox and Sauk Indians. 
Saginaw, land cession at, 147. 
St. Joseph River, affluent of Lake Michigan, 163; land, 

purchase on, 123, 164-66; Indians on, 129, 150, 

152; portage from, 165. 

183 



^ntxtx 



St. Louis (Mo.), site, 78; as a market, 89; an entrepot 

xi, xii, 60; road to, 60, 69-70, 72, 74; mail route to, 

78; visited, xix, xx, 79-81; Indian treaty at, 129. 
St. Mary's treaty of, 123, 127, 129, 134, 137, 140-42. 
Salt, price of, 27. 
Sandy soil, in Illinois, 107. 
Sangamon River, insalubrity of, 86; population on, 88; 

description of, 89; mouth, 89, 96. 
Sauk Indians. See Fox and Sauk Indians. 
Sault Ste. Marie, Indian agency at, xix-xx, 98. 
Say-gaw-koo-nuck, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Scenery, lack of appreciation of, 17-18; description of, 

101, 107. 
Schindler (Chandler), Theresa, cession to, 165. 
Scho-mang, Pottawatomi chief, 167. 
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, narrative, xiv; illness of, 158; 

Travels in the Central Portion of the Mississippi 

Valley, etc., xxi, 83-160; Sketch, xix-xx. 
Scotch settlers, in the West, 41-43- 
Ses-cobe-mesh, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Shakers, settlements of, 23-24; tenets, 24-25. 
Shaw-ko-to, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Shawneetown (111.), in 1818, xi, 4, 13-14; land office 

at, 11, 14; described, 19-20; climate of, 32. 
Shaw-waw-nay-see, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Shaw-way-no, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Shaw-wen-ne-me-tay, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Shaw-we-no-qua, Indian woman, 166. 
Shay-auk-ke-bee, Pottawatomi chief, 167-68. 
Sheep, captured by wolves, 31-32, 73~74- 
Shee-shaw-gan, Pottawatomi chief, 167-68. 
Sibley, Solomon, Indian commissioner, xx, 139-40, 

163-68. 
Skillet Fork, tributary of Little Wabash, 6; described, 

11, 12, 15, 19. 
Slavery, effect on American character, 36; in Illinois, 

58-60. 
Snakes, in Illinois, 30. 
Soils in Illinois, 4, 14, 87-88, 107, 11 2-13; fertility of, 

61, 70, 78, 85,92, 94, 96, 101. 
184 



<$nbtx 



Southern elements, in Illinois, xv. 
Spinning, by frontier women, 12. 
Spoon River, tributary of Illinois River, 89. 
Springs, along Illinois River, 87, 97. 
Squatters, characterized, 67. See also Frontiersmen. 
Storrow, Samuel A., early traveler, xiv. 
Surveys of land, 16. 

Swamps, in eastern Illinois, 44; in western Illinois, 94. 
Swans, in Illinois, xiii. 
Swiss peasants, conditions among, 57. 
Sycamore trees, in Illinois, 85. 

Taverns, charges, 27; described, 31, 45; accommo- 
dations in, 43. 
Taxes in early Illinois, 35, 55. 
Ten Eyck, Conrad, at Chicago treaty, 168. 
Terre Haute (Ind.), xi-xii. 
Tobacco, price of, 27; culture of, 56. 
Todd, Dr. Elnathan, character in fiction, 48. 
To-e-ak-qui. See Schindler, Theresa. 
Tonty, Henri, in Illinois, xiv, no. 
To-pin-a-bee (To-pew-ne-bee,Top-ni-be), Pottawatomi 

chief, speech, 132-34; sister, 164; signs treaty, 167. 
To-to-mee, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 
Traces. See Roads. 
Traveling, expenses, 27, 28, 55-56; methods, 29; 

hardships of, 60-65. 
Treaties, at Chicago, xx, 103, 121-68; Detroit, 142, 

145; Fort Meigs, 151; Greenville, 145, 159, 167; 

Saginaw, 147; St. Louis, 129; St. Mary's, 123, 127, 

129, 134, 137, 140-42. 
Turkeys, hunted, 32, 98. 
Uniones, on Peoria Lake, 100. 
United States army, in War of 181 2, 76; bounty lands 

for, 85, 89. 
United States Indian factors, among Indians, 150, 168. 
Varnum, Jacob, United States factor, 168. 
Vermillion River, mouth of, 105, 117. 
Vincennes (Ind.), 23, 41, 43, 78. 
Virginia, port in, xviii, 3. 
Visger, Jacob, at Chicago treaty, 168. 

18S 



^tfotx 



Wabash River, affluents, 41; watershed, 46; head- 
waters of, 129; portages on, 15; as a boundary, 
4, 11, 14; Indians on, 124; settlements, 23; ferry 
over, 3, 44; route via, xx, 15, 47. 

Wa-baw-nee-she, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

War of 181 2, incident of, 76; fort built during, 92; fort 
attacked, 134; close of, 80. 

Was-es-kuk-son. See Knaggs, W T illiam. 

Washington (D. C), route via, xviii, 43. 

Washtenaw River, village on, 165. 

Waverly novels, publication of, 80. 

Waw-ba-saye, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

Waw-seb-baw, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

Waw-we-uck-ke-meck, Pottawatomi chief, 167. 

Way-me-go, Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

Wayne, Gen. Anthony, treaty made by, 145. 

Wee-saw, Pottawatomi chief, 167. 

Wheat, price of, 27; culture, 56. 

Wheeling (Va.), as a port, 22, 43. 

Whippley, J., at Chicago treaty, 168. 

Whisky, Cass advises against, 124, 139; Indian request 
for, 138. 

White River, in Indiana, 15; crossed, 41. 

Wildcats, in Illinois, xiii, 71. 

Williams, — , English settler in Illinois, 3. 

Williams, John R., adjutant general, at Chicago 
treaty, 168. 

Winnebago Indians, habitat, 129. 

Wisconsin, in 181 7, xiv; Indians of, 129. 

Wolcott Jr., Alexander, Indian agent, 168. 

Wolves, in Illinois, 31, 36, 70; infest the prairies, 73; 
fear of, 30; barking heard, 74. 

Woodlands. See Forests. 

Wy-ne-maig. Pottawatomi chief, 168. 

Yellow fever, in New York, xix. 



186 



